Tuesday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
About today’s passage from Ezekiel, the Vatican II Missal states:
“In the Middle East, desert land was commonplace and water all-important. Water was a symbol of God’s saving grace. The prophet Ezekiel described a future idealised Temple, the source of deepening waters and fertile abundance.”
A marvellous river, flowing out from under the Temple, is a manifestation of the blessings conferred on the land by Yahweh’s return to live among his people. It is linked in today’s Gospel with the healing of the man who was waiting for the waters of the ‘Sheep Pool’ to move.
The First Reading describes an ever-increasing stream of water flowing out from the Temple. It is to be understood as a healing, life-giving water. And, in the background, there is the image of the river flowing through the Garden of Eden, a symbol of the life that God gives to all creation. In the world of the Middle East, a world of parched deserts, water signifies great blessings, just as dryness and drought signify a curse.
Although not fed by any tributaries, the river continues to increase remarkably, until it is too deep to wade across. The banks of the river are seen to have an abundance of trees, again reminiscent of the fertility of Eden (Gen 2:9). The river flows on into the deep depression that marks the course of the River Jordan and into the Dead Sea, so named because its high salt level makes life impossible. But it is to be understood that the river will make the Dead Sea’s waters wholesome. Literally, the angel says that the river will ‘heal’ the waters of the Sea:
…when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh.
That this lowest (1,300 feet below sea level) and incredibly salty (about 35 percent) body of water should be able to sustain such an abundance of life indicates the wonderful renewing power of this “river of the water of life” (Rev 22:1).
The prophet says:
…there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes.
Here we have the image of miraculous water flowing from the Temple and conferring a marvellous fertility. The power of the water is such that, as it flows into the Dead Sea where nothing can live because of its saltiness, the sea flourishes with fish, and fruit trees of every kind grow along its shores. There are overtones of the creation of the teeming waters in the Creation story (Gen 1:20-21). Ezekiel writes:
Wherever the river goes…everything will live…
In the context of the Gospel, this water is the Life that Jesus gives:
…whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)
Truly, this is a symbol of the kind of life that God wishes us to share with him. Jesus says:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
Let us during this Lenten season experience the healing power of Jesus, a healing power which was initiated at our Baptism, but which needs to continue for as long as we live.
Read more
Monday of Week 2 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on 1 Samuel 15:16-23
Today we see Saul rejected by Yahweh as king. In fact, Yahweh regrets ever having made Saul king. This is a very anthropomorphic image of God, where he admits to making mistakes. The Old Testament also presents God as angry, jealous and vengeful, but these are really projections of the Israelites’ own feelings, making God to be very much like themselves.
Although Saul had carried out his mandate to defeat the Amalekites, enemies of Israel, he displeased God because he and his men used the victory to plunder and gather all the spoils to themselves. Saul tried to justify his behaviour by claiming that the best of the sheep and oxen seized by his men would be sacrificed to God.
But Samuel enunciates the very important principle that obedience to God’s will transcends any religious rituals—and that is the central point of today’s reading.
Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice
and to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is no less a sin than divination,
and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.
In so speaking, Samuel is not condemning sacrificial practise as such, but rather saying that ritual which is not accompanied by appropriate behaviour in our relationships with God and others is of no value (see Is 1:11-17; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:21-27; Mic 6:6-8). To act against God’s known will while doing homage to something which is not of God (e.g. personal greed in this case) is to be guilty of a kind of idolatry (worship of Mammon). Saul’s crime is likened to ‘sorcery’ (“divination”), and the last line in some translations reads, “presumption a crime of teraphim”. Teraphim were the household gods, which guarded houses and property (regarding the use of a household idol, see 1 Sam 19:11-17).
Submissiveness to God’s will is certainly better than “the fat of rams”. The fat of sacrificed animals always belonged to the Lord. Samuel speaks of “rebellion”. He is charging Saul with violating the central requirement of the covenant condition when he became king. Speaking earlier to the people he had said:
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and heed his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well; but if you will not heed the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. (1 Sam 12:14-15)
Now Samuel tells Saul:
…you have rejected the word of the Lord…
A king who set his own will above the command of the Lord ceases to be an instrument of the Lord’s rule over his people, violating the very nature of his office, where he is a vicegerent of God.
And so the Lord has rejected Saul as being king. Already Saul had been told, because of a previous incident (see chap 13), that his dynasty would not last because he had disobeyed the will of the Lord. Here the judgement goes beyond the earlier one. Now Saul himself is to be set aside as king. Although this did not happen immediately, as chapters 16-31 show, the process was under way which would lead to his death. It included in its relentless course the removal of God’s Spirit and favour from him (16:14), the defection of his son Jonathan and daughter Michal to David, and the insubordination of his own officials.
In summary, the reading is saying that to appease or manipulate God by using sacrifices in this way was tantamount to superstition and idolatry. For his disobedience, God now rejects Saul as king. As mentioned, this will not occur immediately, but will unfold as the story proceeds.
We too should remember that it is God’s will in our lives that is paramount. Our greatest good is in making God’s will our own. To think that God will be happy with us simply by our piling up religious exercises is misguided piety.
Remember what Jesus said:
When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. (Matt 6:7)
and
…Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28)
In other words, we can always be sure that God hears us. But do we always hear him?
Read more
Monday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5,8-10
We have been reading from the Old Testament for the past nine weeks. We began with the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis and went through selected passages from each of the first eight books of the Bible in order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth.
Today we go back to the New Testament and we begin with readings from the first letter of Paul to the Christians of Thessalonica, in Macedonia, northern Greece. The letters of Paul (and those attributed to him) are not presented in our New Testament in the order in which they were written. They have been listed according to their length, so the letter to the Romans, being the longest, is placed first and the short letter to Philemon is last.
The first letter to the Thessalonians, although well down the list, is actually the earliest letter of Paul’s that we have. It seems to have been written from the city of Corinth, in Achaia, in southern Greece. It was written about the year 51 AD, i.e. just a little over 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This makes it also the earliest of the 27 books of the whole New Testament. It was written, as were all the Pauline letters, well before the first gospel. This makes it a work of considerable significance. Twenty years, in many ways, was a much shorter period in those days than now because society changed much more slowly and, in a 20-year period, would hardly have changed at all. Nevertheless, as we read through this letter we see how well developed the Christian message already is.
The ideas contained here were, for the Christians who read them, part of the Gospel message, i.e. the ‘Good News’ about God which came to us through Jesus Christ. Note that Paul uses the word “gospel” (euangelion, meaning good news) in today’s passage, although Mark, Matthew, Luke and John—as we know them—would not begin to appear for another 20 years.
The New International Version Study Bible gives this introduction to the city of Thessalonica:
Thessalonica was a bustling seaport city at the head of the Thermaic Gulf. It was an important communication and trade centre, located at the junction of the great Egnatian Way and the road leading north to the Danube. Its population numbered about 200,000, making it the largest city in Macedonia. It was also the capital of its province. The background of the Thessalonian church is found in Acts 17:1-9. Since Paul began his ministry there in the Jewish synagogue, it is reasonable to assume that the new church included some Jews. However, 1:9-10 and Acts 17:4 seem to indicate that the church was largely Gentile in membership…Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to encourage the new converts in their trials (3:3-5), to give instruction concerning godly living (4:1-8), to urge some not to neglect daily work (4:11-12) and to give assurance concerning the future of believers who die before Christ returns…the subject of eschatology seems to be predominant in both Thessalonian letters. Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends with a reference to the Second Coming of Christ, with chapter 4 giving it major consideration…The two letters are often designated as the eschatological letters of Paul. (edited)
Today’s reading is summarised by the New American Bible as follows:
“Paul expresses his satisfaction that the three principal Christian characteristics—faith, hope and love—are at work in the Thessalonian community. Unhesitatingly, he places its members among those specially beloved and chosen by God. He recalls that his preaching of the Gospel to them was not received as a mere intellectual exercise, but had made a strong actual impact on their lives which not even the opposition of unbelievers could dispel. Their faith has been an inspiration to Christians elsewhere, who have been impressed especially by the Thessalonians’ complete abandonment of idolatry for the worship of the true God, and by their profound orientation toward the Second Coming of Jesus.”
The letter begins, as usual, with greetings from Paul—together with Silvanus and Timothy—to the local Christians for whom he is writing. He assures the Thessalonians that they are constantly in his prayers and those of his companions. There then comes a typical Pauline blessing:
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In today’s reading the very core of Christianity is expressed. We see the centrality of the Trinitarian relationship between the Father and Christ and the Spirit, as well as the vital elements of faith, hope and love. The previous verse describing the triad of faith, hope and love is found frequently throughout the New Testament. As such:
- Real faith results in action:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?…faith without works is also dead. (James 2:14,26)
- Christian hope is not mere wishful thinking, but firm confidence in Jesus Christ and his promises of a life that never ends.
I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
- Unsparing love imitates that of Jesus, who said that the greatest love anyone could show was to give one’s life for one’s friends.
For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
He addresses them as “brothers and sisters beloved by God”. They are all united to each other as children of one Father and brothers and sisters of his Son.
The term ‘brothers’ is used by Paul 28 times in the two Thessalonian letters. “The gospel”, that is, the gospel proclaimed by Paul, Silas and Timothy, is a gospel they themselves had received by faith and passed on. It ultimately comes from God the Father and then through Christ to his followers and beyond. It is not mere hollow-sounding words. It is filled with power and, once assimilated, can have a transforming effect on one’s whole life.
This was its effect on the Thessalonian Christians. And anyone who proclaims the Christian message through the words of Scripture knows that there is a power there that goes far beyond any human eloquence.
…you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
The example of Paul’s own life and that of his companions was a kind of living gospel, which also had its influence on them. They lived this life, not to draw attention to themselves, but to lead the Christians to the following of Jesus’ Way:
…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
(Matt 5:16)
Paul then congratulates the Thessalonians on the quality of their faith whose reputation has spread far and wide not only to Macedonia, of which Thessalonica is the capital, and to Achaia in the south where Corinth was situated, but everywhere:
…For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you…
So effective has been their influence that Paul has hardly to speak about it himself.
One reason why the Thessalonian example became so widespread was because the city lay on the important Egnatian Way (Via Egnatiana). Apart from that, it was a busy seaport and the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia.
People in other places are telling about how Paul began his work with the Thessalonians, how they turned away from false gods and came to serve the living and true God and are now waiting for the return of Jesus, his Son.
Here we have three marks of true conversion:
- turning from idols (of all kinds);
- serving God; and
- waiting for Christ to return.
In his two short letters to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks much of the second coming of Christ. In this early period of Christianity, this was a major preoccupation for Christians. As the years passed and there was no sign of the Second Coming and people were dying off before it happened, the conviction of an imminent coming waned and the focus switched to spending a long life in the service of the gospel.
Right now, though, they are waiting for the One who will save them from the Retribution, the Day of Reckoning, that is to come. We have in these last two sentences of the reading two main elements of the Good News as preached by Paul: a vigorous emphasis on monotheism and a Christology stressing the coming of the Risen Lord.
We might ask ourselves, if Paul were writing to the Christian community in which we live—our diocese or our parish—what do we think he might want to say by way of praise or criticism? What should we be developing further and what should we be correcting or abandoning? And how much of what he might say could apply to me personally?
Read more
Saturday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Romans 4:13, 16-18 (more…)
Read more
Tuesday of Week 32 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Titus 2:1-8,11-14
Today the Letter continues by giving some moral instructions to the community at large. It also makes very clear and challenging demands on Titus himself. With the many false teachers in mind, Titus is told that he in particular is to spell out the kind of behaviour that follows from the true teaching of the Gospel. Paul writes, “as for you”—where the ‘you’ is emphatic and contrasts the teaching of Titus with that of the false and Gnostic teachers previously denounced.
Instructions are now given on the kind of behaviour that is expected of all, regardless of age, gender or status in the community. In living out the Gospel, the older men in the community, by virtue of their seniority and experience of life, were expected to be:
…temperate, serious, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.
This was to be in contrast to many Cretans, described earlier as:
…liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons. (Titus 1:12)
The same standards were expected of older women in the Christian community, where it is clear that they had a better status than their non-Christian counterparts. They are:
…not to be slanderers or enslaved to much wine…
This perhaps suggests that such behaviour was characteristic of Cretan women.
On the contrary, they are to give an example to younger women:
…to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind…
And in the mode of their time, they are also told to be:
…submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.
Notably, this last injunction should be balanced with what Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians says are the duties of the husband towards his wife:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… (Eph 5:25)
In these two passages, different Greek words for “love” are used: philia (in Titus) and agape (in Ephesians). Actually, philia is probably the more appropriate word for a united married couple.
And—it is important to remember this—all of this is part of living the Gospel message in a very practical way. This is how married couples give witness to the message of the Gospel. If they fail to live in this way, the effectiveness of the Gospel can be diminished.
Titus himself then is urged especially to give an example to younger men. The call to be “self-controlled in all things” was very much in the Greek tradition, but it is something frequently mentioned in these letters. It is also clear that young men then were not very different to those in every other age, including our own. “Moderation” is not usually considered one of their strong characteristics.
Titus is called on to be an example of integrity and consistency in his teaching and his lifestyle so that there can never be any serious criticism levelled at him. Perhaps Titus was still a young man, and not yet well respected by the Cretan churches. The demands on a leader are all-inclusive, involving not only his word but also his lifestyle. As the Letter of James tells us:
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment. (James 3:1)
Whether we like it or not, the message is often identified with the messenger. So where Titus is seen to be consistently faithful, when his behaviour matches his word, his opponents will have nothing to throw against him.
Of course, in practice, we do have to distinguish between the message and the messenger. The Church or any member of it cannot and should not be identified with Christianity itself, which is a vision of life, an ideal to be aimed at. The message is sublime, but it is carried in very brittle and very porous vessels, and it is important to remember that.
At this point, two verses which deal with slaves are omitted, presumably on the assumption that they are no longer relevant. We might reflect, however, on how many people in our societies are treated virtually as slaves e.g. exploited migrant workers, young children abducted and trafficked for the sex industry, just to mention two examples.
The passage concludes with some general remarks about the Christian faith. Through Christ, God’s gratuitous love for peoples everywhere (and not just for an elite group) has been made known to us. Through Paul’s words, we know that this message must influence the way we live. It tells us what we need to do, and the kind of people we need to become so that we can one day be forever united with our God. Everything that does not point us in that direction should be removed from our lives. Orthodoxy must be accompanied by orthopraxis, i.e. right thinking by right doing.
To do so calls for certain standards of behaviour and acting as we prepare for the day when we come face to face with “our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ”, who has made it all possible for us. This phrase is often referred to by the Fathers of the Church to affirm the divinity of Jesus Christ.
It was the sacrifice of his own life on the cross which brought about our becoming a truly free people:
…a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
And that is a definition of freedom—the ability, in every situation, to do what is good.
Preaching alone will not bring about change in our communities. It must be followed up by individuals, families and groups consciously trying to implement the message that comes to us in the Gospel. And we can only do that really as a mutually supportive community. It is not something that can be done left entirely to our own devices. The ‘Church’ is not some amorphous entity which we can praise or blame at will—it consists of all of us—individuals, families and groups. If the Church is at fault, it means that the fault lies in ourselves—that is where it is to be tackled.
Read more
Tuesday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Zechariah 8:20-23
This passage is the last of our three selected readings from Zechariah. It is also the final section of the first part of the book and is another look forward to a time of messianic salvation. There are more words of encouragement from Zechariah for the Jews who have returned from exile and who are still trying to re-establish their homes in Jerusalem. Things do not look too good right now, but Yahweh promises that the time is soon coming when people from even Gentile cities all over will come flocking to Jerusalem, drawn there as if by some magnetic power:
Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.
This prediction anticipates fulfilment of the promise of gentile blessing in Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham:
…all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12:3)
Isaiah also has Yahweh say:
…my house [the Temple in Jerusalem] shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Is 56:7)
This is a saying quoted in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus drove the money-changers from the Temple:
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations…But you have made it a den of robbers.
(Mark 11:17)
Zechariah continues:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’
True godliness in a person will attract others to the Lord. ‘Ten’ indicates a large or complete number in Hebrew. Incidentally, the word ‘Jew’, for the people of the kingdom of Judah after the exile, first appears in Jeremiah. Most of the Old Testament speaks of ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Israelites’.
We, as Christians, belong now to what we call the “New Jerusalem”, the People of God. Are people flocking to be part of our ‘city’? Are they saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you”? Is that what they see in us—people truly infused with the spirit of God and Jesus Christ? Are we the salt of the earth, leading people to praise God because of what they see in us?
Certainly, there are people every year who are applying to join our communities, people who are received through Baptism every Easter. There are also, alas, those who are leaving our ‘city’ and not coming back. Is it that they no longer can see that God is with us? If that is the case, what changes are needed in our way of living the gospel?
Read more
Monday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Romans 11:29-36
Paul continues to reflect on the strange ways by which the rejection of Jesus by the Jews has brought God’s mercy to the once disobedient Gentiles. Once again, he emphasises that by turning to the Gentiles, God has not changed his mind about the giving of his gifts or the choices he has made in the past. His love for the Jews has not changed one bit. The problem is in the way they are responding to him by their rejection of Jesus Christ as his Son.
In the past the Gentiles, too, were disobedient to God, but now, through the rejection of the Jews, God’s mercy and compassion has been shown to them. In the same way, says Paul, those Jews who are disobedient now will receive mercy through the same mercy which has been shown to the Gentiles:
For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Disobedience is not peculiar to any particular group, be they Jews or Gentiles. There has been a period of disobedience for each in order that God may show mercy to them all. God’s door is open to every single person; it is for each one to make the decision to enter. That choice is up to each person to open themselves to God’s loving compassion.
Paul now ends the chapter and this section of the Letter with a profound doxology on God’s inscrutable wisdom:
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
This doxology is a natural outpouring of Paul’s praise to God, whose wisdom and knowledge brought about his great plan for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles. As Paul has indicated throughout these chapters, both Jew and Gentile, despite the religious stubbornness of each, have received the gift of faith. Thus the divine plan or ‘mystery’ of salvation has become open and comprehensible to the whole human race.
He paraphrases from the great Psalm 139 on the all-knowing and ever-present God:
For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?
How and whom God calls is an impenetrable mystery, and why some respond and others do not is equally beyond our understanding. There is nothing we can ever give to God which has not first been given to us by him.
We can only echo the concluding words of Paul:
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Blessed are those who come to understand this and make it the basis of all their living.
So often we try to reduce God down to our human level. And when we do, we find ourselves getting into difficult situations, especially when we try to explain how and why things happen. We must never forget God’s two great attributes: his transcendence and his immanence.
Through his transcendence, God surpasses all we can possibly conceive about him. As St Thomas Aquinas tells us, as soon as we make an affirmation about God, it has to be denied. For whatever truth may be in it, it is totally short of the full truth. For instance, we say “God is love”. Yes, up to a point, but at the same time God’s love is something totally other than love in the limited way we can ever experience it on this earth.
We experience God’s immanence in a similar way. God is totally present to everything he has made. Closer to me than breathing, as St Augustine put it. God is both so close and yet so far. So in our trying to understand the situation of the Gentiles and the Jews, we can only accept with humility the call we have received to follow Jesus. This is similar to many other situations in life which we find difficult to understand.
While it is important that we always try to go as far as we can in our understanding, we also have to recognise that in probing God’s ways we will always be severely limited.
Read more
Tuesday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 8:19-21
The mother and brothers of Jesus come looking for him, but they cannot get to him because of the crush of people in the house where he is speaking. Jesus was in Capernaum at the time and Nazareth was about 50 km (30 miles) away. The mention of ‘brothers’ would commonly indicate cousins and not just siblings. When the message is passed in to Jesus, he says to all:
My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.
The story is told in harsher terms in Mark. He has Jesus say, for instance:
Who are my mother and my brothers? (Mark 3:33)
It is suggested there that their purpose was to take him away. On the one hand, they thought he was mad and an embarrassment to the family and, on the other hand, that he might get them into trouble with the authorities because of the provocative things he was saying and doing such as questioning traditional interpretations of the Law. We see a similar embarrassment on the part of the parents of the man born blind in John’s Gospel. They refuse to speak to the authorities about their son:
Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. (John 9:21)
Luke’s account is softer and just focuses on the saying of Jesus. In fact, Luke has taken this passage out of its context in Mark (3:31-35) and turns it into a conclusion to his short section on the parables. In doing so, he modifies Mark’s statement:
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. (Mark 3:35)
This is done to match the end of Luke’s parable of the sower:
But as for that [i.e. the seed which fell] in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with endurance. (Luke 8:15)
Luke has Jesus say:
My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21)
To a society which regarded itself as God’s chosen people merely by birth and an external ritual like circumcision, Jesus asserts that belonging to God has little to do with blood or race, but only with the relationship one establishes with God.
There is a lot of meaning in the words of the message:
Your mother and your brothers are standing outside…
It was clear from their behaviour that they were not, like the seed falling on fertile soil, ‘hearing’ him and so they were outsiders. Those who really ‘hear’, no matter who they are or where they come from, are ‘insiders’ and belong to the family of Jesus.
Of course, we know from elsewhere, especially in Luke’s Gospel, that Mary is not being condemned here. In fact, this is where her greatness really lies. Clearly it partly lies in her being chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. But perhaps it lies even more in her saying ‘Yes’ (“…let it be with me according to your word”), in her unswerving faithfulness to that ‘Yes’ and in her standing by her Son to the very end when all the rest had fled.
When, on another occasion, she was indirectly praised for being the mother of such a Son, Jesus had spoken in words very similar to today:
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28)
Our discipleship, too, is not determined by our being born into a Catholic family or just by being baptised or by observing the external requirements of our religion, but by our total commitment to the gospel and to an unconditional following of Jesus. Only then can we truly be said to be his brother or sister.
Read more
Tuesday of Week 23 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Colossians 2:6-15
We come now to the instruction part of the letter with some warnings against errors into which the Colossians were reported to be falling. As we saw in yesterday’s reading (Monday of Week 23), they were apparently being carried away by a fascination with various cosmic powers and angelic forces. Paul begins by telling the Colossians that, since they have received Jesus as their Lord and Christ (Messiah), their lives should be totally rooted in him and built on him. They will be held firm by the faith which was passed on to them and they should be filled with expressions of thanksgiving.
But then comes the warning. They are to make sure that they are not made captive by the lure of some kind of ‘philosophy’, a set of ideas that comes from humans and which is based on the principles of the world, but not on Christ. To deny or abandon Christ after he has liberated them from the tyranny of ‘darkness’ by going back to error is nothing else than to undergo a new slavery.
As he did earlier, Paul goes on to refute the ideas with which the Colossians had been toying, ideas that the world was governed by cosmic angels of some kind. It is in Christ and only in him, in bodily form, that the divinity lives in all its fullness.
The word “fullness” (Greek, pleroma) here is defined as the ‘divinity’ that is now ‘filling’ Christ in his human body. In other words, the risen Christ, through his incarnation and resurrection, unites together the divine and the created. In this way, he himself is the pleroma of all possible categories of created being.
And it is in Christ, too, that the Colossians find their own fulfilment, in the One who is the head of every sovereignty and ruling force. A Christian shares this pleroma of Christ by being part of it, i.e. part of Christ’s body, and as a consequence of this, humans are raised to be higher than even the highest grade of angel. Paul then also reminds them that they have been circumcised, but with a special kind of circumcision. Here he is likely speaking to the Jewish Christians. There may have been some backsliding on their part and others coming under the influence of Jewish proselytisers emphasising the importance of circumcision. The same problem is dealt with in the letter to the Galatians.
Christian ‘circumcision’ is one performed not by human hands, where a piece of skin is removed, but:
…a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ.
It is the total giving of oneself to Christ, to God—the complete letting go of the natural self. This is circumcision according to Christ and it is sacramentally celebrated through baptism. Baptism was done by having the catechumen take off his or her clothes, be fully immersed in a pool and then emerging and putting on a white garment. It was a re-enacting of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus himself and an expression of total identity with him.
…you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
Then, speaking to the gentile Christians, Paul says:
And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.
Through our faith, that is, through our total commitment to Jesus, we are reconciled and made one with him. No physical circumcision can bring about this. Prior to that, they were dead, but now:
…God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses…
The Colossians—both Jewish and Gentiles—are now liberated from their debt to the Law; it no longer governs their lives. This liberation was brought about by that debt’s being wiped out—by nailing it to the cross.
The Law was able to do nothing about a sinner except condemn that person to death. This death sentence is what God has carried out on his own Son in order to suppress it for the rest of the world, and it was for this very reason that God’s Son was ‘made sin’, ‘subject to the Law’, and ‘cursed’ by the Law.
In the person of his Son, whom he allowed to be executed, God nailed up and destroyed our death warrant, as well as all the charges it made against us. Finally, God:
…set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
The tradition was that the Law had been brought down to Moses by angels, and by honouring them as the lawgivers, people became distracted from the true Creator. Now that God has brought the regime of that Law to an end by means of the crucifixion, these angelic powers have also lost the one thing that had given them power, and they too must acknowledge that Christ has triumphed over them.
Once again Paul demonstrates that Christ is supreme in sovereignty and the angels and all other cosmic powers are subservient to him. Christ, then, as we saw earlier, is the head of all created things and the head of his people—his body, the Church. Before him everyone must bow.
For us, it is important that we not be misled by fads and fashions which can come into our society or into our church. The problems the Colossians had can be found practically everywhere in the Church and society today. We have the paradox of an agnostic worship of science combined with an obsession with ‘New Age’ thinking and all its eccentricities.
It is so important to realise and to experience that the Gospel in its purity is a genuine source of freedom, because it touches the deepest aspirations of the human spirit. Many sects and elitist groups both within and outside the Church, however attractive, do not normally increase our inner freedom; often they do quite the contrary.
Read more
Wednesday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Nehemiah 2:1-8
Today we begin some readings from the Book of Nehemiah. This is a historical book, not a prophetic book like Haggai and Zechariah. Nehemiah is paired with Ezra and all these books come from the same period.
The Remnant of God’s People has returned from exile in Babylon and is trying to re-establish Jerusalem spiritually, socially and materially. Speaking specifically of Nehemiah, the Jerusalem Bible in its introduction says:
“Nehemiah, though inspired by the same ideals [as Ezra], acts in a different sphere, restoring and repopulating Jerusalem, and making it possible and attractive for its citizens to lead a national life. The record he has left us, more intimate than that of Ezra, reveals a vivid and human personality, ungrudging of effort yet prudent and deliberate, trusting in God, whose help he seeks in frequent prayer. Behind him he left a noble memory, and Ben Sirach sings the praises of him who ‘rebuilt our walls which lay in ruins’ (Sir 49:13). Nehemiah, as he tells us, was a Jew and a cup bearer for the king of Persia.”
The passage also reveals a man of great gentleness and courtesy and a deeply spiritual person. No wonder the king appreciated his services.
It might help to understand today’s reading to give a brief summary of what leads up to it. While Nehemiah was in the Persian city of Susa, a fellow-Jew came to him and described the plight of the Jews who had managed to return to Jerusalem. He was told they were in a very bad and demoralised condition. The walls of the city were in ruins and the gates had been burned down.
On hearing this, Nehemiah broke down and wept. He mourned, fasted and prayed to his God on behalf of his people. He admits to God that they have behaved very badly and have failed miserably in observing the Law they had received through Moses. He then reminds God of his promise: if the people misbehave, they will be scattered everywhere, but if they return to God and keep his commandments, he will bring them back from even the remotest parts.
The reading opens in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, that is, March-April 445 BC. The time is a little later (though belonging to the same historical period) than that of Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah, whose books we have just been reading.
As the king’s cup bearer, Nehemiah has the right to bring wine to the king. It is four months since he was first told of the plight of his people. The delay in approaching the king has been variously explained: the king may have been in his winter palace in Babylon; he may not have been in the right mood; even though Nehemiah was clearly a court favourite, diplomacy made him bide his time in making his approach.
As he brought the wine to the king, the king commented that he had never seen Nehemiah so depressed before. No matter what one’s personal problems were, the king’s servants would be expected to keep their feelings to themselves and to display a cheerful disposition in the royal presence.
The king shrewdly guesses the source of the problem. As Nehemiah is clearly in good health, his sadness must come from the heart. Nehemiah is alarmed that his inner feelings are so obvious, but then boldly tells the king the reason for his depression:
May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
Nehemiah does not mention Jerusalem by name. He may have wished to arouse the king’s sympathy by stressing first the desecration of ancestral tombs, something the king, from his own culture, could sympathise with. When the king asks him what Nehemiah wants him to do, Nehemiah first makes a short, spontaneous prayer to his God. One of Nehemiah’s striking characteristics in this book is his frequent recourse to prayer. He then makes his bold request:
If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.
Again he does not mention Jerusalem by name, but emphasises that the city is where his ancestors are buried. The king—with the queen sitting beside him—asks:
How long will you be gone, and when will you return?
The mention of the queen here is probably significant. The king is clearly fond of Nehemiah; perhaps the queen even more so. And Nehemiah may have timed his approach when he knew the queen would also be present. Ctesias, a Greek who lived at the Persian court, informs us that the name of Artaxerxes’ queen was Damaspia and that the king had at least three concubines. Like Esther, Damaspia may have used her influence with the king (see Esther 5). The Persian court was notorious for the great influence exercised by the royal women. Especially domineering was Amestris, the cruel wife of Xerxes and mother of Artarxerxes I.
As soon as Nehemiah has indicated how long his mission would take, the king gives his immediate approval. Nehemiah probably asked for a brief leave of absence, which he then had extended.
We can infer from Nehemiah 5:14 that he spent 12 years on his first term as governor of Judah. In the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah returned to report to the king and then came back to Judah for a second term (Neh 13:6-7). Next, Nehemiah asks for guarantees of protection from various officials with whom he will have to deal on the way to his mission:
If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah…
A contemporary document from Arsames, the satrap of Egypt who was at the Persian court, to one of his officers who was returning to Egypt, orders Persian officials to provide him with food and drink on the stages of his journey.
‘Transeuphrates’ literally means ‘on the other [i.e. western side] of the River Euphrates’. From the Palestinian point of view the land “Beyond the River” was Mesopotamia. From the Mesopotamian point of view the land “Beyond the River” included the areas of Aram, Phoenicia and Palestine. The Persians also called this area Athura.
Nehemiah also requests that an order be given to the keeper of the king’s forest to supply him with timber for the beams of the gates of the citadel, the city walls, and for the house which Nehemiah will need for his residence. The Hebrew for ‘king’s forest’ is pardes, a loanword from Old Persian meaning ‘enclosure’, a pleasant retreat or park. The word occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Ecclesiastes 2:5 (“parks”) and the Song of Songs 4:13 (“orchard”).
In the Septuagint, the Greek transliteration paradeisos is used here. In the period between the Old and New Testaments, the word acquired the sense of the abode of the blessed dead, i.e. “paradise”. It appears three times in the New Testament (see Luke 23:43; 2 Cor 12:4; Rev 2:7).
As to the location of the “king’s forest”, some believe that it was in Lebanon, which was famed for its forests of cedars and other coniferous trees. But a more plausible suggestion is that it should be identified with Solomon’s gardens at Etham, about 10 km south of Jerusalem (see Josephus, Antiquities, 8.7.3). For the city gates, costly imported cedars from Lebanon would not be used, but rather indigenous oak, poplar or terebinth.
The “citadel” probably refers to the fortress north of the Temple, the forerunner of the Antonia fortress built by Herod the Great (Josephus, Antiquities). This is probably where Jesus was arraigned before Pontius Pilate (John 18:28) and later where Paul would be held (Acts 22:24). All these requests were granted and Nehemiah attributed this to the kindly hand of God watching over him.
The reading again indicates the benevolent attitude of the ‘pagan’ kings of Persia towards God’s people. As Christians, we know that many of the works we are involved in could not continue without the help of many non-Christian people who share generously of themselves and their goods. Let us today thank God for these people and ask him to bless them.
It will also help us to understand that God’s truth and goodness can be found anywhere. It is important for us to be able to recognise it wherever we see it. Jesus’ words that “the Kingdom of God is near” has many meanings. For those with eyes to see, God’s Kingdom can be discerned everywhere.We might also imitate Nehemiah in his seeing the hand of God in everything he experiences and, before all our decisions, lay them before God first in prayer.
Read more