Tuesday of Week 34 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 21:5-11
The Temple at Jerusalem in Jesus’ time was a magnificent building and one of the wonders of the world. As the Gospel tells us, it had been more than 40 years in the building and was not yet completed. People were commenting to Jesus on the beautiful decorations of jewels and votive offerings. His hearers must have been shocked, if not utterly sceptical, when Jesus told them that, in time, the building would be utterly destroyed with “not one stone…left upon another”. In our not too distant past, who would ever have dreamt that the New York City World Trade Center, that temple to capitalism, would be reduced to rubble in a just matter of minutes—and how much more the Temple of God?
They asked Jesus:
Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?
Jesus’ answer is directed more to the end of time than to the actual destruction of the Temple, which occurred about 40 years later in the year 70 AD. In fact, one event blends into the other. To many who were witnesses to its destruction, it must have seemed like the end of their world. What kind of life could they live without their Temple, without the dwelling place of their God? How could Yahweh allow such a thing to happen? It left a huge empty space in their lives which nothing else could fill.
Jesus’ warning is that his followers should not misread the signs or be too alarmed. It seems the early Christians were expecting Jesus to return for his Second Coming within their lifetime. This must have led to many false alarms—people claiming to be the returned Lord, or warning that the end of all things was close at hand. Even the destruction of the Temple (remember many of the Christians were converted Jews) must have looked like the beginning of the end. St Augustine had similar feelings as Rome, the heart of Christendom, fell in ruins to the ‘barbarians’ (the ancestors of many of us!). The end of Rome seemed to him like the end of the world.
Jesus tells his followers not to be too ready to believe what they hear people saying. Nor are they to be too alarmed when they hear of wars and social upheavals. There will be many natural disasters, widespread diseases and celestial phenomena. These do not necessarily spell the end. The message now being given is:
…the end will not follow immediately.
At every pivotal time in the history of our planet, there are people who claim to see the end in sight. The coming of the third millennium was no exception. So far they have all been wrong. The attitude of Christians is not to be one of fear and anxiety. It sees the new era as a time of challenge and opportunity, a time for new beginnings.
On a more personal and much more realistic level, we may be anxious about the signs of our own time of departure from this world. But again, it does not help to become fearful and anxious. Rather, we should work to live each day to the fullest and to make it productive for ourselves and others.
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Saturday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 10:17-24
We saw at the beginning of chapter 10 how Jesus had sent his 72 disciples out to all the places where he himself would visit. Today we see them returning full of joy and satisfaction:
Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!
They discovered that, in his name, they were able to do the same things that Jesus did.
In reply, Jesus said to them:
I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
The power of evil is being reversed and this was partly the doing of his disciples working in his name. And he further reassures them:
I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.
‘Snakes and scorpions’ more likely represent evil powers and so the statement is not to be taken literally and still less to be tested (as some obscure sects have tried to do with predictably tragic consequences!). It is true that for the committed disciple nothing can really hurt them. Physically, maybe, but not their real selves. Nothing, as Paul says, can separate us from the love of God, that is, the love that God extends to us at every moment of every day.
Then Jesus tells his disciples the real reason why they should be happy. It is not because they have special powers over evil spirits, but rather:
…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
In other words, their blessedness comes not from what they are able to do, but because they have been chosen as the instruments for God to do his work, to make the Kingdom a reality. That is the origin of our blessedness too.
Then follows a beautiful prayer of Jesus to the Father. He thanks the Father because all that is coming into the world through Jesus is being made known, not to the wise and great ones of this world, but to “the little ones”, the people who, in the eyes of the majority, are of no account:
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
And, since that day on the lake shore when Jesus called four fishermen to be his followers, he has been calling very ordinary people to know his identity, to hear his message and share his vision.
And so he can say truly to them:
Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
All of this applies to so many of us too. We, for reasons only known to God himself, have been given knowledge of the Son. We too, by means of the Church, have been given a vision denied to so many—we have heard the Word which is the Way to truth and life.
Whatever problems we may be facing right now, let us on this day count our blessings and express our gratitude for them. And the only way to do that is to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus and his gospel. Let us start doing that right now.
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Tuesday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 14:15-24
Today we have the last of four teachings of Jesus linked with meals. It was prompted by the remark of a guest at table who said:
Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!
It was very common to associate the future Messianic Kingdom with a banquet. Jesus responds with a parable which is a warning to his complacent listeners, many of whom probably smugly presumed that they would be among the small minority chosen to eat in the Kingdom.
A man threw a large dinner party with many guests invited. But when the time came and the guests were reminded, one after another they gave excuses why they were not able to come. One had just bought a piece of land and had to inspect it; another had just bought some oxen and had to try them out; a third had just been married.
It seems that the original invitation had been accepted, but when the final invitation came, excuses were made. In fact, none of the excuses has much validity. One would not buy a field and only then look at it, nor would one buy oxen without having tried them out before the purchase.
On hearing this, the master got very angry and ordered his servants to:
Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.
After this, the servants reported that there was still room, so they were given orders to scour the roads and bring in as many as they could find. Said the host:
Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
The parable is a clear message from Jesus to his Jewish listeners. Many of them, especially the religious leaders steeped in complacency and presumption, had rejected the invitation to follow Jesus and enter the Kingdom. Some of them would actually conspire to bring about his death. Their place would be given to those formerly seen as outcasts, both Jews and Gentiles, people aware of their needs, i.e. the “poor in spirit”. There would be a special place for the poor and the disabled, people often seen by traditional Jews as people abandoned by God and buried in sin.
To go back to the beginning of the passage, blessed indeed are those who eat together in the Kingdom, but it is clear that only those who respond to the invitation will enjoy the privilege.
We have no more right to presumption than those Jews who rejected Christ. We too are being invited to go into the Lord’s banquet hall, but it is important that we respond to the call. We do that by our totally accepting and living out the teaching of Jesus our Lord. And part of that teaching is that we, too, invite and welcome into our community those who are poor, crippled (in some way), the blind and the lame—taking these words in their broadest sense. No more than those fellow diners of Jesus, our presence at the Kingdom banquet is never to be taken for granted.
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Monday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Galatians 4:22-24,26-27,31—5:1
Today’s passage actually begins with a verse not in our reading:
Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? (Gal 4:21)
By this Paul is invoking the witness of the Scriptures. To inherit the promise, it is not enough to be just a descendant of Abraham, as Ishmael (Abraham’s son by Hagar) was. It is necessary to be descended as the result of promise, like Isaac; it is necessary to be a spiritual descendant, not just a genealogical one. Hence for Paul, Isaac’s birth prefigures the rebirth of Christians.
Paul uses the examples of two of Abraham’s wives, Hagar and Sarah, to illustrate the difference between the Jews who were following the Law of Moses and Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, who follow the law of Christ.
Hagar was a slave woman while Sarah was a free woman and the wife of Abraham. In the beginning Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was barren, so he took the slave girl, Hagar, who gave him a son, Ishmael. It was only later, when she was already past child-bearing age that Sarah bore Isaac. The difference between them, according to Paul, is that Ishmael was born “according to the flesh”, that is, in the ordinary course of nature and without any special intervention on God’s part.
Sarah, however, had been barren into her old age, and the child she eventually bore was the result of a special promise that God had made to Abraham about his descendants. That promise only applied to Isaac and his descendants. (Hence, the significance of Abraham’s total trust in God when he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, and was ready to do so.)
The point Paul is making is that it is not enough to be descended from Abraham, as Ishmael and many Jews could claim. He sees in the two mothers symbols of the two covenants:
One woman…is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.
Paul refers to it as an “allegory”, not in the sense that it was not historical, but that Paul is using the story to illustrate the theological truth he is sharing with the Galatians.
The first covenant Paul identifies was that made on Mount Sinai between God and Moses. But Paul says, its children (the “present Jerusalem”) are now to be regarded as slaves, slaves of a Law that cannot save them. This is in contrast with the messianic Jerusalem, to which, as Isaiah foretold, “all the nations shall stream…” (Is 2:2). This is the Jerusalem which the prophets proclaimed—a Jerusalem not of laws, rituals and holocausts, but a Jerusalem which created a society of truth and justice for all.
The second covenant, however, belongs to this second Jerusalem, what Paul calls the “Jerusalem above”. The rabbis taught that the “Jerusalem above” would come down during the time of the Messiah. It is, in Paul’s eyes, the place where Christ reigns as King and whose citizens are his followers, in contrast to the “present Jerusalem”. It is this “Jerusalem above” which is the “mother” of the Christians.
Paul quotes from Isaiah’s joyful promise to Jerusalem:
Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children…
Jerusalem “bears no children” because her children are in exile. Paul applies Isaiah’s joyful promise to exiled Jerusalem to the gathering of believers through the gospel, by which ‘Jerusalem’s children’ have become many.
Paul tells the Galatian Christians—both Jews and Gentiles—that they are children not of the “enslaved woman” (of the Law), but of the “free woman” (the Spirit of Jesus). There is no need for them to continue following the old ways of the Law. To do so is to renounce the freedom which came to them in Christ.
The purpose of Christ’s liberating death was precisely to make us free. To go back under the Law would be to return to a way that is equivalent to a form of slavery. Human beings must choose either Christ or the Law as author of salvation. The freedom spoken of here is freedom from the yoke of the Law. The burden of the rigorous demands of the Law as the means of gaining God’s favour makes an intolerable burden for sinful man. As Peter said at the Council of Jerusalem when the acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community was being debated:
…why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we [the Jews] will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:10-11)
It is important for us Christians to be aware that following Christ and the gospel is meant to bring real freedom into our lives. If we do not experience our being Christian as liberating, then there is something lacking in our understanding of what the gospel is about. One gets the impression that many Catholics do not have any real sense of liberation, although their faith may give them a measure of security—at a price. They have replaced the Law of Sinai for another set of legalities (“If I do this, is it a sin?”). It has to be said, too, that some pastors have preached a gospel heavy with rules and regulations and threats of sin and damnation.
Some see being a Christian as a matter of having to observe all kinds of restrictions which ‘other people’ are not obliged to follow. Some have been heard to say things like, “Oh, I wish I had not been baptised!”
For this reason, some remain riddled with guilt because they consistently feel they are not living up to the requirements of their religion. Others rid themselves of this guilt by leaving the Church altogether, saying: “Now that I am no longer a Catholic, I am not bound by that nonsense any more; I don’t have to go to church on Sunday; I can have sex with anyone I like, whenever I like” and so forth.
Others see virtue in ‘denying themselves’ and ‘making sacrifices’, giving up the ‘freedom’ that other people seem to have in order ‘to save their souls and go to heaven’.
There is no question of doubting the sincerity of such people, but it is sad that somehow they have not learnt or been taught that the true Christian is a truly liberated and free person. To be free is not simply doing just what one feels like doing. Such an attitude inevitably leads to self-destruction and certainly not to happiness and fulfilment. To be free is to be effectively able to follow the good.
That good we believe is found in the vision of life that Jesus proposes and which he personally followed. It is not a way just for Christians; it is a way for people everywhere. It is the vision of the Kingdom—a world of truth and goodness and justice and mutual respect for all, without exception—a Way that leads to God. A world where God, people and the world are living in a beneficially harmonious relationship.
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Sunday of Week 7 of Ordinary Time (Year A)
Commentary on Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 and Matthew 5:38-48 (more…)
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Thursday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 9:7-9
Today we have a short interlude which is leading to some very special revelations. Herod the Tetrarch is hearing stories about what Jesus is doing. ‘Tetrarch’ means the ruler of one-fourth part of a kingdom. This one, Herod Antipas, was one of several sons of Herod the Great, whose kingdom was divided among four of them. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to 39 AD. Although not strictly speaking a ‘king’, he is called that in Matthew and Mark following popular usage.
Herod is puzzled because he is being told that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead. At the same time others are saying that Elijah (whose expected return would signal the arrival of the Messiah), or one of the ancient prophets has reappeared. Herod has recently beheaded John the Baptist, and the superstitious king is filled with a mixture of fear and curiosity. He kept trying to ‘see’ Jesus.
Luke does not actually record the death of John and, in this short passage, he prepares the reader for the later meeting of Herod with Jesus (Luke 23:8-12). So Herod’s wish will be partially fulfilled at a later date, though under very unexpected circumstances, and in a way that Herod will find very unsatisfactory. He is hoping that Jesus, like some circus dog, will do some ‘tricks’ or ‘miracles’ for him.
Herod’s desire was almost entirely one of curiosity, it was the desire of the hedonist and the seeker of novelty. To ‘see’ Jesus in the full gospel sense is something totally different. It can only happen to those who have the eyes of faith, and who can see in the person of Jesus the presence and power of God.
We may recall the request of some ‘Greeks’ who told Philip they wanted to see Jesus, and the reply that Jesus gave about the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying (John 12:20-26). We have not seen Jesus if we do not know him in his suffering and dying as his way to new life.
Let us ask to see Jesus today, a seeing that leads to a total acceptance of his way of life and following him all the way, through the cross and beyond to a life that never ends.
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Saturday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 25:14-30
Today is our final weekday reading from Matthew’s Gospel and on Monday we will begin the reading of Luke’s Gospel. Today is also our last reading from the fifth and final Eschatological Discourse of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel.
There are two great passages left—the parable of the talents and the description of the last judgement—but we will only be taking the first of these. Both deal with the final judgment and, like the parable of the bridesmaids, are warnings on how we are to prepare.
The parable speaks of a wealthy man who, before he set off on a journey, entrusted his servants (slaves) with large sums of money. He gave them different amounts according to their ability. One received five talents, a second, two, and the third just one. A ‘talent’ was an enormous amount of money in the ancient world, so five talents was a veritable fortune. Originally, the term stood for a unit of weight, about 75 pounds or 30-something kilos. Later it became a unit of coinage, the value depending on the metal used. Actually, our current meaning of ‘talent’ comes from this parable.
The amount given out indicates the generosity of the master. But the money was not for their own personal enjoyment; it was meant to be used productively.
The first two servants both traded actively with the money they had been given and doubled their original capital. The third man, however, buried his money in the ground, as this was considered the most secure place in a pre-banking society.
When the master came back, the first two presented their accounts. Their master was very pleased and they were entrusted with even more responsibility. To each he said:
Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.
Then the third man came along with his one talent. He had not traded with it because he was afraid he would lose his money and said:
Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.
Ironically, he was the one who was given the least and from whom the least was expected. But even with that little responsibility he failed to produce. Perhaps he even expected to be praised for his prudence.
The master does not deny the charge of being a hard man, but he accuses the man of not having done even the least thing to increase his capital. He could have deposited or lent the money and got some interest. But he had absolutely nothing to show of his own.
The money is taken from him and given to the one who had five talents. Surprising? Unfair? Not really. This man had already shown he was a very good investment. And Jesus sums up:
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
As mentioned above, the word ‘talent’, which in biblical times referred to a huge amount of money, now denotes a particular gift or ability with which a person is endowed. “He has a great talent for music; she has a great talent for design.” In that sense, we have all been endowed with talents in varying degrees or, to use a word which Paul prefers, charisms. In either case, they indicate some distinctive ability which is to a large extent innate or God-given.
Everyone of us has been endowed in some way. And, as in the parable, some are greatly endowed and others less so. All that is asked is that we make use of that gift or those gifts to the best of our ability, and not for ourselves alone (that is to bury them in the ground), but to build up the Kingdom and make a positive contribution to the community to which we belong.
At the end we will be asked, as the men in the parable were, “How did you use the gifts I gave you and how productive were they in furthering the growth of the Kingdom?”
Today then is a day for us to identify what those gifts actually are. It is possible that some people have never given it much thought. They see their Christian life in rather passive terms, just looking after themselves, living in conformity to the commandments of God and the Church, fulfilling their ‘religious duties’, making sure to die ‘in the state of grace’. But this, in effect, is to bury one’s talents.
Today’s Gospel makes it very clear that far more is expected of us. We are expected to make an active and positive contribution to the work of the Kingdom and to the Christian community as the Body of Christ. In practice, that means taking an active part in our Church, in our parish, and in making a contribution to the betterment of our society. So, it is very important for us to spend some time in reflecting on what are my unique ‘talents’ or gifts or abilities and then to ask how and to what end I am using them? The time to do that is today because, as we have been amply warned, we do not know when our Master is coming back to check his accounts with us.
The end of today’s passage indicates that if we do not move forward, or are not productive, then we go backwards. We cannot remain static or purely passive in God’s service. To do nothing is not a possible option. The more we give and share with others from the resources we have, the more we are personally enriched. On the other hand, to cling to our gifts and keep them just for ourselves is to become smaller in every way.
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Saint Francis Xavier – Readings NO LONGER USED
Commentary on Zephaniah 3:9-10,14-18a; Ps 85; Matt 28:16-20
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Tuesday of Week 1 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus tells us here not to babble endless prayers as if somehow by so doing we can bring God round to our way of thinking (see also Elijah and the priests of Baal: 1 Kgs 18:25-29). Some religious groups, too, would keep calling their god by all his different names, hoping that by hitting on the right one he would listen. There is no need to do this because God knows our needs before we ask. Why then do we need to pray at all?
The praying is not for God’s sake, but for our own. It is important for us to become deeply aware of our needs, of our basic helplessness, and of our total dependence on God. We also need to discern just what God wants of us so that we can do what he wants.
And that is what the Lord’s Prayer is about. Strictly speaking, it is not a prayer to be recited. It is a way of praying; it is a list of the things we need to pray about. And it is less our telling God what we want him to do than making ourselves aware of the ways by which we can become more united with him. It is a very challenging prayer and, in a way, a very dangerous and daring prayer to make.
Our Father…
God is the source of all our life and all we have and are. And, if Jesus urges us to approach God as “Our Father”*, then every single person, each one without exception, is my brother or sister.
May your name be revered as holy…may your kingdom come…may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
The three petitions are all really saying the same thing. Obviously, in one sense we cannot make God’s name more holy than it is. But we do need to respect that awesome holiness, and that is more for our sake than God’s. The petition can also be a petition that God make his name holy by showing his glory, in this case by bringing about the Kingdom in its fullness.
We want God to be loved and respected and worshipped by all—not in some future life, but here and now on earth. We want the loving and compassionate Reign of God to be fully accepted by people everywhere as part of their lives, individually and corporately. We want God’s will for this world to be also the will of people everywhere.
Clearly, all this has to begin with ourselves. The coming of the Kingdom is not just the work of God alone; it is the result of our cooperating with him in the work. What am I doing in my life now for the realisation of that Kingdom?
Give us today our daily bread…
This is a prayer that our needs be satisfied for today, a prayer that rules out excessive anxiety about the future. But how are those needs to be satisfied? Do we expect manna to drop from the skies? And what about that little word ‘our’ again? Does it just mean me, my family, our community, our town, our country—or much more? Is this not a prayer that we all work together to ensure that no one goes hungry? Yet we know that millions do go to bed hungry every night and even more suffer from an unhealthy diet. And we recognize that most of it is the result of human behaviour and neglect. This prayer reminds us that changing that situation is the responsibility of all of us—this is another dangerous prayer.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…
Yet again, we have a dangerous thing to pray for. I really should not say it unless I am ready to do it. And if I am not ready, I need to pray hard for a forgiving heart. This is the only petition which is spelled out more clearly at the end of today’s Gospel passage:
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you…
(also see Matt 18:21-35 about the unforgiving servant)
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one…
A final plea that we will not fail, but that God’s help will be with us all the way. It is an admission of our basic impotence to set things right in our own lives and in the world. Given the challenges of the rest of the prayer, we need all the help we can get.
If this prayer were to really enter our hearts and minds, we would become deeply transformed people. So let us stop babbling it as we often do and really pray it, phrase by phrase—and let us live it as well.
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*As discussed in the Catechism, “God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 239)