Monday of Week 1 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Leviticus 19:1-2,11-18

The general theme of the Book of Leviticus is in today’s opening sentence:

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Today’s reading comes from a section dealing with moral and religious regulations related to daily life, with obvious links to the Ten Commandments. Some of them sound somewhat strange today such as:

You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. (Lev 19:27)

Presumably some of Israel’s ‘pagan’ neighbours were doing this.

In today’s reading the call is clear: the measure of our holiness is that of God himself. Obviously that is not something to be even remotely achieved in our lifetime; rather, it is an ideal to be constantly aimed at as we continually try to raise our sights. But are there are any measures by which we can measure our progress in something so abstract as holiness?

Very simply, today’s reading says that holiness consists in the way we treat (or do not treat) those around us. It is perhaps worth observing that everything here is expressed in the negative, the things we ought not to do towards our brothers and sisters:

• No stealing or fraud.
• No irreverent use of God’s name.
• No abuse of others through exploitation or robbery or by failing to pay just wages at the proper time.
• No abuse or neglect of the disabled: the blind and the deaf are mentioned.
• Avoiding all forms of prejudice and bias either towards the weak or the powerful.
• No passing of judgement on others beyond the bounds of justice and fairness.
• Never criticising out of hatred, but only out of a desire to help.
• No exacting vengeance and no holding grudges.

It is quite obvious that it is not enough just not to do these things, but rather positively to do the opposite in each case. And they are all finally summed up in one positive injunction:

…you shall love your neighbor as yourself…

In the context within Leviticus, it is clear that ‘neighbour’ means a fellow Jew, but Jesus—as well as Paul and James in their letters—would extend its meaning to embrace every single person.

Some of the stricter Pharisees interpreted ‘loving the neighbour’ as implying that one should ‘hate the enemy’. But others came closer to Jesus’ injunction that love for neighbour should even extend to those who would want to harm us. For instance, the medieval Spanish Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (also know as Nahmanides) said:

One should place no limitations upon the love for the neighbour, but instead a person should love to do an abundance of good for his fellow being as he does for himself.

It is clear from this and the later teaching of Jesus that ‘neighbour’ included every single person and not just those close to us by place, nationality, race, religion, class or gender—even those who would want to harm us. And, as today’s Gospel makes clear, our neighbour is particularly to be identified with any person who is in need of help of any kind.

Later, Jesus would push the command even further when he told us to love each other, not just as much as we love ourselves, but to the degree that he loved us—by ‘emptying’ himself and giving his life for every single one of us.

As I reflect on this passage during Lent, I may ask: Where do I stand in my relationships with my friends, my ‘enemies’ or the needy in my community?

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Tuesday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Romans 12:5-16

As Paul comes to the end of his Letter (we will finish reading it this week), in his usual way he has some advice of a practical nature for the Christian community in Rome. This does not mean that he has not said anything about Christian living up to this point, but he now goes into detail to show that Jesus Christ is to be Lord in every area of our life.  These chapters are not a postscript to the great theological discussions we have seen so far.  What he has said about God and our relationship to him in Jesus Christ must also flow out into the way we behave and relate to each other.   True faith cannot stand by itself.  It must find expression in the way we act:

…the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
(Gal 5:6)

This means submitting ourselves totally to Jesus Christ and his Way.

Paul begins with a critical statement on which all that follows depends: 

…so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

It is not just that each one of us through baptism is united with Christ, but that because of the presence of Christ in each one of us, we are essentially united to each other in one family.  In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul speaks of this at length.  Speaking to the Christians he says plainly:

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:27)

This is the basis for all that follows.  We can only love and serve Christ in loving and serving each other.  Christians are not isolated individuals.  The community forms an interlocking and interdependent relationship in which each member offers their particular gift or charism in the service of the whole community.

Although we are united together as brothers and sisters in one family, there are important differences between each person.  Unity implies diversity.  Each one has been endowed with a distinct gift or ‘charism’ by which one serves the community in a unique way. These gifts are to be openly acknowledged and used for the good of the community and for individuals in it.

Paul then mentions some of these gifts:

Living in a society where Christians were suspected, hated and attacked, he urges them to “bless” their persecutors and not to curse them.  This is advice that Jesus himself had given.  To pay back one’s persecutors in kind is to bring oneself down to their level.  Blessing and praying for them is not only not impossible; it is the only way to bring about change—in them and us. Therefore, St Paul adds:

Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

Elsewhere Paul, speaking of himself will say that he is all things to all people.  He adapts himself to their needs, which is not at all the same as doing just what they want.

Finally, he urges each person to “live in harmony with one another”. Not in the sense of being blind to each one’s virtues and defects, but as God himself does, to reach out impartially to all with the same measure of love and concern, to be free of bias and prejudice and to act with real justice.

Reflecting on this passage, we can each ask ourselves what particular gifts has God given to me with which to serve both our Church community and the wider community?  How often do I actually think about this?

It is something which, to some extent, we have lost in many of our parishes.  So often in our Mass assemblies—which often is the only time we get together—we come as private families or as individuals with little concern or interest for those around us.  “I go to the 11 o’clock Mass because the time is convenient and I like the choir.”  By being “at” Mass I have fulfilled my “weekly duty”.  Is that what the Eucharist is about?  Where is that interlocking and interdependent community that Paul speaks about here?

The second part of the reading concerns more about how each individual, and we today, could usefully make an examination of conscience on the headings that Paul lists to evaluate how well we are doing. Although they concern each individual, they are all linked to our relations with others.

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Saturday of Week 1 of Advent – First Reading

Commentary on Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26

The first part of today’s reading consists of words of consolation for the people of Zion, who are God’s people. They shall weep no more and the Lord will respond to their cries for help. This is so:

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction…

This is always a mystery for many—how a God who loves us so much can allow us to endure pain and hardships. Some common reactions one hears from people are that God wants us to suffer so he sends us sufferings, or that a God who tolerates such sufferings is not a loving God at all, or simply that God does not exist.

Yet, if we reflect, we will understand that the sufferings we endure either have natural causes which can be explained, or else are the result of the distorted actions of other human beings. But as to why I should suffer a particular mishap rather than someone else is something we cannot understand in this life. Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 horror in 2001, but a far larger number, including some in the buildings, escaped. As Jesus once asked, on the occasion of a tower’s collapsing and killing a number of people:

…do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? (Luke 13:4)

Jesus did not think so.

Let us rather listen to the promise in today’s Reading:

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

God, who in the past taught through the veiled language of the prophets, will at a future time help his people to understand his teaching more clearly. This is a straightforward pointer to the coming of the Prophet Jesus, whose teaching made so much clear.

That time will be one of great fertility and fruitfulness:

He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures, and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage that has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

The prophet expresses it in agricultural terms, a language easily understood by the ordinary person of the day. He also says that even:

…the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold…

But with the coming of Jesus as indicated in today’s Gospel, it will be a different kind of fertility:

…on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Jesus will bring healing, wholeness, freedom and peace into people’s lives. And this is not only the work of Jesus, but also the work of his followers.

That is the paradox: although there is healing, it does not mean the end of pain or hardship or unexpected tragedies. Jesus himself, in the midst of the most terrible pain imaginable, died in the peace of a relationship of total acceptance and self-surrender to his Father. Jesus is our Teacher and invites us to walk this way.

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Friday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 10:13-16

In today’s Gospel, we hear strong words from Jesus against towns where he had preached extensively—Chorazin, Bethsaida and especially Capernaum.

Chorazin is only mentioned twice in the Bible, here and in the parallel passage of Matthew (11:21). It was near the Sea of Galilee and probably between 3 and 4 km north of Capernaum. Bethsaida, the home of some of Jesus’ disciples, was on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had been built by Philip the Tetrarch, who called it ‘Julias’ after Julia, a daughter of the emperor Caesar Augustus. Capernaum, situated on the north shore of the lake, appears frequently in the Gospel narratives and was the centre from which Jesus did much of his missionary work. His work and preaching would have been most familiar to the people there.

Jesus says that if the gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon had witnessed all that Jesus had said and done in those towns of Palestine, they would have repented long ago—just as the pagan people of Niniveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Tyre and Sidon were towns on the Phoenician coast, north of Palestine (Lebanon today). Jesus was said to have visited the area just once and only very briefly, so the people there did not have an opportunity to witness Jesus’ miracles or hear his preaching, unlike the people in the towns mentioned above.

And Jesus goes further. Addressing his disciples he says:

Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

In other words, to listen to the messengers of Jesus is equivalent to listening to him personally—to reject those messengers is to reject Jesus and to reject God.

And in our own times, perhaps we should emphasise that those ‘messengers’ are not just bishops, priests and religious. They include all those who sincerely proclaim the gospel by their words and their lives.

It might be no harm then for each of us today to hear those warnings of Jesus addressed to ourselves. How well have we really responded to the call of Jesus in the Gospel? How open are we to hear that message coming to us from different kinds of people in our community? How committed are we to accepting, living and sharing that Gospel with others?

Might it be true to say that there are people in other parts of our world, our country, our society who, if they were given what we have been given, who heard what we hear, would respond much more generously than we have done?

There is never any room for complacency in our Christian life. Because we have been given so much, so much more is expected of us. As Jesus says elsewhere, we may be very surprised to see others, who never had an opportunity directly to hear the gospel, go before us into God’s Kingdom.

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Thursday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Nehemiah 8:1-12

Today’s First Reading presents a dramatic scene where Ezra, the priest-scribe, gathers the returned exiles in Jerusalem. It is also a highly meaningful passage for Christians.

Scholars say that the chapter from which today’s reading comes should be inserted in the Book of Ezra 8:36. The mention of Nehemiah in the passage was inserted later after the displacement of passages in Ezra-Nehemiah. There is no clear evidence that Nehemiah and Ezra were ever in Jerusalem at the same time. Although we are in the Book of Nehemiah, the passage is about Ezra (see the readings from the Book of Ezra from Week 25).

We are told that it is in the 7th month, the beginning of the civil year, and the returned Israelites are now settled in their towns. But now “all the people” gather together in the square in front of the Water Gate. They ask Ezra, a scribe, to bring the Book of the Law of Moses which had been prescribed for them.

The Water Gate was southeast of the Temple and not on sacred ground. Squares were normally situated near a city gate. Scribes, as their name indicates, originally served kings as secretaries, such as Shaphan under Josiah, where the Hebrew word for ‘scribe’ is translated ‘secretary’. Other scribes took dictation—such as Baruch, who wrote down what Jeremiah spoke.

We need to remember that most people, probably including even kings and highly placed administrators, could not read or write. However, from the exilic period on, the ‘scribes’ were scholars who studied and taught the Scriptures. In the Gospel they are often referred to as “teachers of the Law” and paired with the Pharisees. Some Pharisees would certainly have also been scribes. In the New Testament period they were addressed as ‘Rabbi’—a title often accorded to Jesus himself.

The “book of the law” that the people are asking for would be the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) as it existed at that time. Four views have been proposed concerning the extent of this Book: (1) a collection of legal materials, (2) the priestly laws of Exodus and Leviticus, (3) the laws of Deuteronomy, (4) the Pentateuch. Surely Ezra could have brought back with him the Torah, i.e. the entire Pentateuch.

So, on the first day of the 7th month, the priest Ezra brought the Law before the assembly, consisting of men, women and children “old enough to understand”. The first day of the 7th month makes it October 8 in the year 445 BC.

In pre-exilic times, the feast of the seventh month (Sept-Oct) began the new year. It was celebrated as the Feast of Trumpets, with no work being done on that day and the holding of a sacred assembly. Normally, women did not usually take part in assemblies, but were brought, together with children, on such solemn occasions.

Then, Ezra:

…read from it [the Book of the Law] facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

The scene is reminiscent of Moses reading the Law to the people at Mount Sinai. Apparently, the people stood for five or six hours—from dawn until noon, listening with great attention to the reading and explanation of the Scriptures.

So that he could be better seen and heard, Ezra stood on a wooden dais erected for the purpose. Around him stood a number of prominent citizens. As he opened the book to read, all the people rose to their feet (it would, of course, have been a scroll and not a ‘book’ as we understand the word). The rabbis deduced from this verse that a congregation should stand for the reading of the Torah. It is customary in Eastern Orthodox churches for the congregation to stand throughout the service and the Vatican II liturgy also recommends standing for most of the liturgy, except when listening to the Word of God (and even then one stands for the reading of the Gospel).

At the end of the reading:

Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

The repetition of “Amen” conveys the intensity of feeling behind the affirmation. In our Catholic liturgy we have a ‘Great Amen’ at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer. In practice, it very often is hardly more than a pathetic murmur.

Private acts of worship often involved prostration “to the ground”, as in the case of Abraham’s servant Moses before the Lord at Sinai (Exod 34:8), Joshua before an angel of the Lord (Jos 5:14) and Job at the news that his whole family and herds have been wiped out (Job 1:20). As well, Jehoshaphat:

…bowed down with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. (2 Chron 20:18)

With the reading and exposition of the Law complete, a number of Levites:

…helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They [the Levites] gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Rabbinic tradition understands the Hebrew for this expression (‘giving the sense’) as referring to translation from Hebrew into an Aramaic Targum (a translation of Old Testament books or passages). But there is no evidence of Targums at this early date. The earliest extensive Targum is one on Job from Qumran, dated circa 150-100 BC. Targums exist for every book of the Old Testament except for Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah.

The effect of this reading on the people was great:

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

As mentioned already, Nehemiah’s name seems to be an addition which does not belong to the original text. The people are then told to go and celebrate with a banquet, while not forgetting those who do not have access to food:

Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared…

It is not a time to be sad and mournful:

…for this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

They are to enjoy delicious festive food, prepared with much fat. Normally, the fat of sacrificial animals was offered to God as the tastiest element of various sacrifices such as burnt offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. On such occasions, the fat of the animal was not to be eaten.

It was also customary for God’s people to remember the less fortunate on joyous occasions. Paul has strong words for Christians who celebrate without remembering the more needy:

When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you proceeds to eat your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. (1 Cor 11:20-21)

What kind of a Eucharist would that be?

The Levites also consoled the people, urging them to calm down, to remember it was a sacred day and not a time to be sad. Then the people did as they were advised:

And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

In a way, with the presentation of the Law, their return was complete.

What happens in this account has many similarities with our celebration of the Eucharist:

• We listen to the Word of God read to us and have it interpreted so as to understand it better and see how it applies to our present life situation.
• Like the people in the story, we, too, stand in reverence for the Word of the Gospel.
• We remember with shame and sadness the suffering and death that our Saviour endured to liberate us from our many sins and from never-ending death.
• But we also celebrate with joy and thanksgiving his resurrection and share together the bread and wine which are his Body and Blood.
• Like them, too, we shout a Great Amen! of thanksgiving and welcome and acceptance.
• And, afterwards, we live out what we celebrate by sharing what we have with those in greater need than ourselves.

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Thursday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Romans 14:7-12

Chapter 14 of Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of the most inspiring passages in the New Testament.  It is a hymn to tolerance and the acceptance of others.

Because the Christian community consisted of both former Jews and Gentiles, there were often disagreements still over certain ritualistic practices which had been carried over from Judaism. To the Jews, the attitudes of the Gentiles seemed very lax, if not downright wrong.  To the Gentiles, some Jews seemed over-scrupulous and legalistic.  What Paul recommends is that each one be tolerant and understanding of the weaknesses of others and not to cause unnecessary offence.

In today’s reading, Paul reminds us that there is only one Lord and that is Jesus Christ.  It balances yesterday’s reading about the primacy of love.  The real object of that love must always be God and Jesus, found in every person.

And so he says:

…we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

None of us has an independence of our own.  In life and in death we belong totally to the Lord.  This, of course, is a fact which no believing person can deny, but if it is also a genuine conviction, then it also needs to be acknowledged and lived out in our lives.

And says Paul, it is:

…to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

How then can an individual abrogate to himself the right to sit in judgement over a brother or sister? Or have the right to look down on a brother or sister?   As is clear from the overall context of the chapter, he is referring to some of the weaker brothers and sisters who, for instance, will not eat food that has been offered to idols for fear they will be seen as not true converts from paganism.  Paul regards them as still weak in their faith.

Paul himself, who knows that idols mean nothing and are only man-made images, does not care where food comes from, but in the presence of such people, he will not eat that food rather than upset them:

…it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.(Rom 14:21)

Jesus had strong words of warning for people who were stumbling blocks in the way of the “little ones”, those still in the early stages of faith.  It is something we need to keep in mind.

Of course, Paul is speaking of issues which do not touch the core of our faith.  Among Catholics today such an issue could be taking Communion in the hand or on the tongue.  People may have strong ideas about one or the other, but neither side has the right to pass definitive judgement.  It will not be on an issue like this that we will be judged—nor should we judge others either.

We are not isolated masters of what we do or say.  We do not live in a moral vacuum, where we only have to be answerable to ourselves.  Everything we do has an affect on others and we are responsible for the influences we exert for good and for bad.

There can only be one Judge and he is the One before whom all of us will have to stand some day.  Only one Person has all authority before which all must bow. Paul then paraphrases from the prophet Isaiah (Is 45:23):

As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.

And Paul says in conclusion:

So then, each one of us will be held accountable.

So then, how can we take it on ourselves to sit in judgment on others, as has obviously been happening among some of the Christian communities with which Paul is connected?  It is not for any of us to judge the behaviour of brothers and sisters.  It is not for us to condemn them for their weaknesses which we don’t happen to have. God will take care of that in his own time and way. Only he knows what inner motives and the resources people have to do good. Our sole concern should be to be ready to give an account of our own stewardship.

That does not mean, of course, that we will not be called on to evaluate the conduct or the behaviour of other people. For instance, a prospective employee will be evaluated by an employer as to his or her suitability for a particular post.  For example, we do not just allow anyone who applies to become a teacher, a policeman or a priest.

But evaluating a person’s intellectual or other capacity is not the same thing as passing a definitive judgement on the person.  We may utterly condemn the work of a terrorist in blowing up a building full of innocent people, but we cannot pass a final judgement on such a person, whose inner motives and convictions are hidden from us and who also can change and become a totally different person. Perhaps today’s terrorist can be tomorrow’s highly respected prime minister. It is a fact that many of the people we now regard as saints were guilty of seriously immoral behaviour in their earlier lives.

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Wednesday of Week 34 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 21:12-19

Jesus continues his warnings, but now mainly to his own disciples. He foretells experiences and happenings which will be soon realised in the Acts of the Apostles, not to mention in the subsequent history of the Church through the centuries, including our own. Jesus speaks of abuse and persecution:

…they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons…

The term ‘hand over’ is a refrain occurring again and again in the New Testament. John the Baptist was handed over to Herod who put him in prison and then executed him. Jesus himself is handed over first to the leaders of his own people and then into the hands of the Romans who would execute him. And now Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, can expect to be handed over and to be dragged before civil and religious courts “because of my name”.

Many of the early Christians came into conflict with Jewish communities and were handed over to synagogues. Synagogues were not only prayer halls and places to learn the Scriptures, but also were used for civil administration and as places of confinement while awaiting trial.

The charges may be civil or criminal, but the real reason will be that the accused are followers of Christ. For example, countries that practice religious persecution always insist people are arrested (or worse) because of their violation of civil and criminal laws, and not because of their religious affiliation. As such, Christians become objects of fear and hatred, their ideas seen as threatening and even subversive.

But says Jesus, his followers are not themselves to fear or be anxious. When the time comes, they will know what to do and what to say. He will tell them what to say and how to answer.

This promise has been vindicated again and again across time. The really sad thing is that those betraying them to the authorities will often be members of their own household—”parents and siblings…relatives and friends”. Again, this prophecy sadly has been realised all too often.

Jesus continues:

You will be hated by all because of my name.

This is strange and, in a way, makes no sense. Jesus—who preached truth, love, freedom, peace, justice and non-violence—becomes, in his followers, the object of lies, hatred, imprisonment and torture, division, injustice and the most terrible violence.

But not a hair of your head will perish.

This is not a phrase to be taken literally, because many suffer terribly in their bodies, but there is an inner integrity and wholeness that nothing can destroy.

By your endurance you will gain your souls.

That is, by going through all that our enemies can throw at us, we come out at the end people who are whole and complete and who can lift our heads up high. There are many examples even in our own recent past: Bishop Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, St Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), to name a few. Their memories are treasured and become an inspiration to all of us.

Let us pray that we may have the courage to be true to our Christian values whatever the cost. Let us not be surprised that our faith and our religion can create such anger and such hostility.

At the same time, we reach out continually in truth and love to dissipate the unjustified fears that our beliefs can engender in others. We are a threat to false values, but we must try hard to help people see where real truth and goodness lie. And we do that by seeking for that in our own lives.

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Wednesday of Week 32 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Titus 3:1-7

Today, our third and last reading from the Letter to Titus consists of some general instruction for church members. The living of a full Christian life touches not only on our direct relations with God but also permeates even the smallest actions of our day and the role we play in the everyday world.

It is not right for us to make a division between what is ‘religious’ and what is ‘secular’ in our lives. Christianity, as a vision of life, touches everything. We live, as the Jesuit philosopher theologian Teilhard de Chardin put it, “in a milieu divin”: everything around us is touched by God.

Today’s Letter urges the Christian community to obey government officials and representatives. As ‘citizens of heaven’ (see Phil 3:20), some of the early Christians had problems about this, and it seems to be reflected in the scene where Jesus is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.

The answer is ‘Yes’ to both: give to God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar (the ruling authorities). Although believers are indeed ‘citizens of heaven’, they should also submit themselves to the moral and legitimate demands of an earthly government and co-operate actively in promoting the well-being of the community.

Of course, everything belongs to God and that is the bottom line. But we also love and serve God when we work with conscientious people in promoting the overall well-being of the community (including the responsible paying of taxes). In fact, we have a Christian duty to do so. For Christians to abdicate their responsibilities to the wider community and lock themselves into an isolated ghetto would not be consistent with the love we are asked to have for all.

At the same time, we need to adopt what Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila once described as “critical cooperation” with any government or its officials. All forms of injustice and corrupt use of power must be resisted and denounced. Obedience here would be tantamount to cooperation. As has been said, for evil to prevail all that is needed is that good people remain silent.

Some of the other pieces of advice Paul gives Titus are fairly general:

• to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
• to speak evil of no one [even if true],
• to avoid quarreling,
• to be gentle,
• to show every courtesy to everyone.

This is “love your neighbour” being carried out in practice and the advice is as relevant as it ever was. Sometimes we are not very different from non-Christians in this area.

The Christians are reminded that there was a time, before they became Christian, when their own behaviour left much to be desired, when they shared many of the vices of their fellow-Cretans:

…we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.

At that time, they still lived in an atmosphere of wickedness and hostility, full of hate for others and quite obnoxious themselves.

Perhaps we could look into our own lives and see if any of these things are in ourselves:

• Ignorance in the content and meaning of our Christian faith: How many Christians, especially Catholics, have very little familiarity with the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments? How many could, if asked by a non-Christian, give a coherent and persuasive account of what Christianity really is?
• Disobedience, in the sense of lacking in real respect for authority, both in civil and church society: Obedience does not mean subservience; it means working together with civil and religious leaders for the well-being of all. And, as we mentioned, that working together may mean at times challenging and calling in question—but not copping out.
• Slaves to various passions and pleasures: We live today in a very materialist, consumerist and hedonistic society. It has become a kind of fashion to live in this way. But, as we see again and again, pleasure is not a real source of happiness; it is often quite the contrary. As Christians we need to be able to show a viable alternative where happiness is to be found in other ways of living.
• Hating and being hateful: Many people’s lives are consumed by hatred, resentment, anger and even violence towards others. Such people are not attractive and can only really find company in others equally full of hate and rancour. At the bottom of such feelings there is fear. In the New Testament, the opposite of love is not hatred, it is fear. And true love casts out fear; these states of being are incompatible.

Let us then try to be more loving people, allowing God’s love to work in us and through us so that the deep-down fear gradually seeps away.

In the second half of the reading, we are reminded that all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ was in no way a kind of reward for our faithfulness to him. We have been saved and liberated for no other reason than the deep compassion that God had for us when we were still immersed in our sin. Our liberation came, rather:

…when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…he saved us…not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy…

The word “loving” here translates the Greek philanthropia, that is, love for all mankind.

We were washed clean by the waters of Baptism and made a new person in the power of God’s Spirit working in and through us:

This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We have been made right with God by a purely gratuitous display of his love. We have now become the Father’s heirs, sharing with Jesus our Brother and Lord life without end. To remain in that state, it is up to us to remain totally open to God’s love and allow him to transform us to become daily more like him in all our words, actions and relationships.

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Tuesday of Week 16 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Exodus 14:21—15:1

Following on from the reading of Monday of Week 16 of Ordinary Time, we see today the great moment when Moses, at the Lord’s command, separated the waters and the Israelites walked across on dry land.  Just before this (not in our reading) Exodus tells us that God’s protecting angel which had been leading the Israelites now moves to protect their rear. Similarly, the pillar of cloud, the visible sign of Yahweh’s presence, which had been leading the people from the front now moved to the rear to be between the Israelites and the Egyptians. And, before night fell, the cloud became dark so that the two sides could not see each other and come in contact.

It was now, in obedience to the Lord’s command, that Moses stretched out his hand over the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea). A strong east wind began to blow all through the night and turned the sea into dry land. The Israelites then marched right into the sea on dry land with the waters piled like a wall to their right and to their left.

The Egyptians with all their horses, chariots and charioteers went in pursuit right into the sea. It was then that the Lord struck:

At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic.

Moreover, the wheels of the chariots bogged down on the soft bottom of the sea so that they could hardly move.

Seeing the situation, that their God was supporting the Israelites, the Egyptians immediately sounded a retreat. But it was too late:

The the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.

Immediately the sea began to return to its normal depth. The Egyptians were thrown back into the surging waters. The whole army of the Pharaoh, chariots and charioteers were drowned. Not one man escaped.

In this way, the Lord rescued his people from the hands of the Egyptians. When the Israelites saw the bodies of the drowned Egyptians lying on the seashore, they were made aware of the great power the Lord had shown against the Egyptians. The scene is a film director’s dream and it is no wonder that the story has been re-enacted in more than one film epic over the years.

On seeing all that had happened and how they had been rescued from certain capture and death:

…the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

However, it was a faith that would have many ups and downs, as we shall see.

Then Moses and all the people broke out into a marvellous hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Our reading ends with just the opening verse of the hymn:

I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

It is a long and magnificent hymn (Exodus 15:1-18) well worth reading in full. It is a whole psalm of thanksgiving (the first and most famous of the ‘canticles’ which the Christian liturgy takes from the Old Testament). Its starting point is the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, but it goes on to develop the theme of God’s power and his care for his people; the wonders of the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, even the building of the Temple in Jerusalem—all indicating it is a much later composition.

Parts of the hymn probably sound rather aggressive and triumphalist to our ears today, but the underlying theme is a realisation of God’s awesome power and thanksgiving for his protection in times of danger. Verses from it form the response to the reading for yesterday and today, and it is also used during the Easter Vigil liturgy.

As the Jerusalem Bible notes:

“Old Testament tradition consistently regards the ‘crossing of the Red Sea’ as one of the most, if not the most striking evidence of Yahweh’s intervention on behalf of his people. The episode is equally prominent in Christian tradition from the New Testament onwards, as a figure of the decisive ‘exodus’ effected by Jesus, and particularly of the baptism by which the Christian enters into it (see 1 Cor 10:1-33—‘Our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; by the cloud and the sea all of them were baptised into Moses…’).”

In the waters of baptism—more significantly when it is by total immersion—we pass through the saving waters to life in Christ.

The idea running all through both in the Old and New Testaments is liberation; God makes his people free. He liberates us from slavery of all kinds. To be honest, am I as a Christian experiencing that liberation and sense of freedom in my life? If not, why not?

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Wednesday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 8:28-34

Matthew’s version of this strange story is quite different from and much shorter than that told in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 5:1-20). It is usual for Matthew to pare down stories to just the essential details, while Mark tends to give a more dramatic presentation. In Matthew’s version, there are two possessed people instead of just one (as in Mark’s Gospel). This is similar to the version of the Bartimaeus story told by Mark (10:46-52) where Matthew (20:29-34) also has two blind men instead of one.

In the previous story about the calming of the storm, we saw that Jesus and his disciples were crossing the lake. They now come to their destination, a place known as the Gadarenes. It got its name from the town of Gadara on the south-east side of the lake.

Here Jesus was met by two people possessed by demons who completely controlled them. Unlike many of the ordinary people, the demons in these two men have an insight into Jesus’ identity although they may not recognise it fully:

What have you to do with us, Son of God?

Jesus usually refers to himself as Son of Man and never as Son of God.

The two men continue shouting:

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

There was a belief that demons would be free to roam the earth until the Judgment Day came. They did this by taking possession of people. This possession was often associated with disease, because disease was the consequence of sin and a sign of being in Satan’s power. That is why when Jesus expels a demon there is often a cure as well. By driving out these evil spirits, Jesus inaugurates the Messianic age which many of the people do not recognise, but which the demons do. Later Jesus will hand over this exorcising power, together with the ability to effect cures, to his disciples. We will see that in the discourse in chapter 10.

The demons then begged Jesus to let them go into a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus consented to this. As soon as they had entered the pigs, the whole herd rushed headlong over a cliff and into the water below. The swineherds rushed off to the nearest town to tell what had happened.

The townspeople immediately came out in search of Jesus and, not surprisingly, begged him to go somewhere else. It might seem rather high-handed of Jesus to destroy a whole herd of pigs in this way. We have to remember, however, that in Jewish eyes these pigs were abominably unclean. There was not a better place to put demons, and it was they who really brought about the destruction of the animals. But understandably, the owners of the pigs found it difficult to see things in the same way.

The purpose of the story, of course, is to focus on Jesus’ power to liberate people from evil influences which were destroying their lives. What these men were suffering could not be compared to the loss of the pigs’ lives and the pigs would have ended up in a cooking pot anyway! We, too, need to ask Jesus to liberate us from any evil influences or addictions which enslave us and prevent us from being the kind of persons he wants us to be.

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