Living Space Archives

4 January – First Reading

Commentary on 1 John 3:7-10

Today’s reading is a continuation of yesterday’s, which reminded us that we must ‘break’ with sin if we are to “abide in the Son and in the Father”. The passage today enunciates a very important principle:

Everyone who does what is right is righteous…

Jesus had said something very similar when he said that a tree can be known by its fruit. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. But it is important for us to realise that it is not the acts which make us holy (righteous). On the contrary, our good acts are rather a sign that God is working effectively through us. Similarly, our reading says that:

Everyone who commits sin is of the devil…

The analogy of course is bad fruit = bad tree.

Earlier, the writer, speaking positively, had used expressions like: “of God”, “from Truth”, “child of God”, as an indication of how someone was living under the influence of God. Now, speaking negatively, he speaks of those who are: “of the devil”, “for the evil one”, to indicate those whose lives do not reflect the Spirit of Jesus.

Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them…

God’s ‘seed’ here refers either to Jesus or to the Spirit. The image is of human reproduction. The ‘seed’ (Greek, sperma) of God’s life has been planted in the believing Christian and, because of that, the child grows in the likeness of the Father.

Once we become closely united to God and allow him to work in us, sin is excluded. God and sin are mutually exclusive. That is why Jesus could say of the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee that there was no sin in her, because she was so full of love (Luke 7:36-50). And, we might add, in the Gnostic anti-body context in which this letter is written, love expressed sexually is also included because it is a ‘holy’ thing, and God is there.

Of course, we know that in practice our union with God is never perfect, and we constantly fail in our love for him and for those around us. As well, what we often call ‘love’ can sometimes be self-centred, hurtful, or degrading. But, by and large, once we are fundamentally linked with God and with the Gospel of Jesus, that will show itself in all our relationships and behaviours. Once we have the right vision, our behaviour naturally follows. What we see, we do.

On the other hand:

…all who do not do what is right are not from God…

And the same goes for:

…those who do not love a brother or sister…

To be close to God and to love one’s brothers and sisters are two sides of one coin—we cannot have one without the other.

Saturday of Week 9 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Tobit 12:1, 5-15, 20 (more…)

Wednesday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 2:4-9,15-17

We have a very different creation story today. This section is chiefly concerned with the creation of Man, the human person. It is much older than the narrative from which we read yesterday (Gen 1:1—2:4) and comes from the ‘Yahwistic Source’ rather than the ‘Priestly Source’. It is not, as is sometimes said, a second creation narrative. Rather it focuses on the creation of Man as distinct from the creation of the world, and is only complete with the separate creation of Woman and the appearance of the first human couple.

Here God is depicted as creating Man before the rest of his creatures, which are made for Man’s sake. It is not realistic, but this is not history and it is certainly not science. The meaning is to show the priority of Man in the order of things on this earth.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [literally a living “soul”].

The picture is of God working like a potter moulding the human body out of the clay of the earth. In the Hebrew there is a play on the words adam (‘man’) coming from adama (‘the ground’).

In this version of creation, humanity does not—as in yesterday’s reading—appear at the end of a long process of creation when all the lesser creatures were brought into being first, but comes into existence at the very beginning before anything else, even before the plants necessary for his survival.

Only then did the Lord God plant a garden in the east, in Eden (note: the garden is not named Eden, but is in Eden). In this garden, he put the Man. In the garden he also placed every kind of plant that was pleasant to look at, and provided fruit that was good to eat. As well, there was the “tree of life” (a symbol of the immortality which the Man was intended to enjoy) and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.

The name “Eden” is used here as the name of a region in southern Mesopotamia (southern Iraq today), but does not actually correspond to any known site. The term comes from a Sumerian word eden, meaning ‘fertile plain’. A similar-sounding word in Hebrew means ‘delight’, so Eden is understood as a ‘garden of delight’. Through the Greek translation of the Hebrew, we get the word ‘Paradise’ which literally means a ‘pleasure park’.

The man’s responsibility was to cultivate the garden and look after it. The man was also told that he was free to eat nearly all and any of the plants in the garden (including, apparently, fruit from the “tree of life”). The overall impression given is that life was easy and exceedingly pleasant.

But there was one special exception. The man was not to eat the fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Otherwise he would be doomed to death. Eating the fruit, as we shall see, did not bring about instant death. After eating the fruit, they survived, but death would come as the end of a miserable existence of toil and sorrow. Sin, by separating us from God, can only lead to death.

The Man was master of his world, but with this one exception, it was made clear that God was master of the Man and that this relationship would be acknowledged by the Man’s obedience to this command of the Lord God.

The whole world is God’s gift to us, but we need to remember that we have to enjoy it responsibly and not do it harm. Also, we need always to conform our living to that vision of life that we have received from God through Jesus Christ and his Word. For us, Jesus and his Way is truly a tree of Life:

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)

Thursday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:1-11

In our last three readings from 2 Corinthians, we’ve entered a final section of the Letter where Paul vigorously defends his credentials against people who have been criticising him. There is a unity in these chapters which suggest they may originally have been part of a separate letter. They consist of an apologia by Paul, defending his way of acting and his ministry. The language is highly emotional and very strongly expressed in parts. In the central part, there is a very emphatic statement on his credentials to be an apostle.

As he did in the early part of the letter (which we saw last week), Paul continues defending his record with the Corinthians, though in much stronger terms. Today’s reading is relatively mild. He begins by appealing to the Corinthians to put up with his foolishness, which, he feels does not disqualify him from being an evangeliser. Just before this he had said:

…it is not those who commend themselves that are approved but those whom the Lord commends.
(2 Cor 10:18)

Clearly, Paul feels that he has this mandate, unlike those others he is criticising who do not have such a mandate and yet whom the Corinthians seem to tolerate. He feels like a jealous parent or matchmaker:

I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The “divine jealousy” reminds us of the prophets who describe God as being jealous when his people dally with other gods who would try to take his covenant people away from him. The relationship between God and his people is likened to a marriage, where Israel is Yahweh’s bride.

Similarly, Paul, like a father, has betrothed the Corinthian community to Christ as his bride. But they are now dallying with teachers who are not true ‘matchmakers’ and who will not lead them to their true Spouse, Christ.

But just as Eve was deceived by the cunning of the serpent, Paul is afraid the Corinthians are being seduced away from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ and are becoming unfaithful to their marriage with Christ. For if someone comes and preaches “another Jesus” than the one Paul and his companions gave them, or if they receive a “different spirit” from the one they originally received, or a “different gospel” from the one they first accepted, the Corinthians seem to be quite ready to go along with it. Those ‘other preachers’ are seen as doing the seductive work of Satan, and the Corinthians are flirting with teachings that are not part of the tradition which Paul gave to them.

But Paul feels that he is in no way inferior to what he calls “super-apostles”. They seem to be people who have come from outside and are regarded by Paul as intruders. They also seem to have won support from at least some of the community and this may be because, compared to Paul, they were much more persuasive as speakers and orators. It is possible that they had appealed to the authority of the church leaders in Jerusalem and even had letters of recommendation from them. The Church in Jerusalem was very Jewish and it may not have understood the very different conditions prevailing in the pluralist situation in Corinth, where Jews and Gentiles formed one community.

These “super-apostles” seem, in fact, to be the same kind of people who were causing so much trouble among the Christians of Galatia, where there were movements to restore observance of the Jewish Law not only among Jewish Christians, but even among Gentiles as well. The fact that, in tomorrow’s reading, Paul strongly affirms his own credentials as a Jew indicates that these “super-apostles” belonged to this group.

However, Paul is not attacking the Jerusalem leaders, whose authority and credentials he acknowledges. He is rather attacking the ‘super-apostle’ intruders. The intruders are ‘super-apostles’, not in the sense of the the true Apostles in Jerusalem, but in their own estimation. They consider themselves superior to Paul as apostles and ministers of Christ. Paul rejects their claim to be apostles in any superlative sense (Greek, hyperlian), judging them bluntly as “false apostles”, ministers of Satan masquerading as apostles of Christ. On the contrary, as we will see in tomorrow’s reading, Paul himself will claim to be a super-minister of Christ on the basis of his record.

When it comes to proclaiming the gospel, Paul admits that he may not be as good a speaker as they are, but he yields nothing to them in knowledge (perhaps this is the weakness, the distressing ‘sting of the flesh’ he mentions later on). And he has made this clear to the Corinthians “in every way”. In other words, in all their contacts with him, he has been passing on to them the Word of God which has been revealed to him. Even in his life experiences, the death and life of Jesus are being revealed. His opponents can make no such claim.

Paul now moves to another reason for complaints against him—his custom of preaching without any remuneration. He says:

Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news to you free of charge?

Did that make him look like a freelancing amateur? One feels there is an element of sarcasm here and perhaps a jibe at his opponents who may have expected ‘fees’ for their work.

He preached without remuneration because his expenses were covered by other churches he had already evangelised. He says he even “robbed” other churches by accepting help from them in order to give his services free to the Corinthians. And, when he was among them and in material need, he asked nothing from the Corinthians. Members of Christian communities in Macedonia came down all the way to Corinth to take care of Paul’s needs. He refrained then, and he will continue to refrain from burdening them now. He says:

As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

Achaia is the province in the south of Greece in which Corinth was situated.

And why will he do that? Because he does not love them? “God knows I do!”, he says. Surely his desire not to burden them in any way is proof enough of that. He rejects any lack of affection as his motive (possibly imputed to him by his opponents) and states his real motive, which is to emphasise the disparity between himself and the others.

Paul’s experience has been repeated many times in the history of the Church (and of other churches). People are often only too eager to hear some novel message, some new way of explaining the gospel, especially if it is accompanied by a lot of razzmatazz. The same goes for some devotional movements in the Catholic Church today which attract large numbers of people, but which are not true to the core message of Christ—the establishment of the Kingdom.

Wednesday of Week 19 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Our final reading from the book of Deuteronomy is also the whole of the final chapter of the book. It is also our last reading from the Pentateuch.

The death of Moses ends the long saga which began when he first received the call to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt, through the great experiences on Mount Sinai, the tribulations of the 40 years in the desert until the moment when they reach the threshold of the Promised Land.

As the reading opens, we see Moses leaving the plains of Moab and climbing Mount Nebo, described as:

…the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.

He went in obedience to the Lord’s command (mentioned earlier—see Deut 32:48-52).

On the mountain, Moses has a vision which embraces the whole Promised Land, into which he will not go, but of which he thus takes possession on behalf of the people. While he could not actually see the whole territory with the naked eye from the top of the mountain:

…the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar.

Dan was in the very north of the country (the names of the provinces come from the names of Jacob’s sons). Naphtali lay immediately to the south and southwest of Dan. Manasseh and Ephraim occupied the centre of the country, just north of Jerusalem. Judah stretched southwards from Jerusalem (Jerusalem was in Judah). South of Judah was the Negeb, lying west of the Dead Sea. Jericho was on the north end of the Dead Sea and Zoar at the southern end. The “Plain” refers to the plain lying between the mountains of Moab, which lie to the east of the Dead Sea, and the River Jordan.

Pointing to the whole territory spread out below, Yahweh says to Moses:

This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

Moses’ life work was now over. He had been shown the goal of all his labours, but not permitted to enjoy it. However, he did take possession of it in the name of the people.

Then we are told:

…Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.

‘Servant of the Lord’ is a special title used to refer to those whom the Lord, as the Great King, has taken into his service; they serve as members of God’s royal administration. For example, it was used especially of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, the prophets, Israel collectively, and even a foreign king the Lord used to carry out his purposes (Nebuchadrezzar, see Jer 25:9). In Nebuchadrezzar’s case, the king becomes an instrument by which God can reveal his power and glory.

Earlier God told Moses he would actually die on Mount Nebo itself (Deut 32:50). He was buried in the valley below, in the country of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, to the east of the northern shores of the Dead Sea. However, the author says:

…no one knows his burial place to this day.

Moses was “was one hundred twenty years old when he died”, but in full use of his faculties:

his sight was unimpaired, and his vigor had not abated.

This is perhaps a round number, indicating three generations of about 40 years each.

The mourning by the Israelites went on for 30 days. Once this period was over, Joshua, son of Nun, assumed leadership. He was full of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, and the Israelites accepted him as the successor to Moses.

In a final encomium, the author says:

Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

Finally, we are told Moses:

…was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

That is, no one could compare to Moses until the coming of Jesus (see the Letter to the Hebrews 3:1-6, where Moses the “servant” is contrasted with Christ the “son”).

We Christians also owe a lot to this great man. His story and the story of his people are also part of our story, part of our tradition and heritage. And it has much to teach us.

Wednesday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 9:57-62

Today’s passage has to be seen in the light of yesterday’s Ordinary Time Gospel (Luke 9:51-56). Jesus has reached an important stage in his public life and mission. He is now irrevocably on his way to Jerusalem and all that that means for him—and us.

But he does not want to go alone. His whole purpose is to have people go with him. Already there are his disciples, but there will be more. Today we see three ‘candidates’ coming forward with a lot of good will, but Jesus makes them aware of what following him really means. Their responses to Jesus’ remarks are not given so we do not know whether they became followers or not. The point Luke is making is to show what following Jesus entails.

The first says very generously that he will go wherever Jesus is going. Jesus answers:

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

These words of Jesus indicate not poverty or indigence, but freedom. To follow Jesus fully one needs to be free, not to be tied down by anything and not to be anxious about having or not having things.

There is no evidence that Jesus was poor in the sense of being deprived of the necessities of life. He did not own a house, but it is never even hinted that, by necessity, he had to sleep out in the open air. He belonged to a group of people who more than willingly shared what they had with him.

The second man from today’s Gospel was actually invited by Jesus to be a follower. But he asked first to be allowed to go and bury his father. This does not mean that his father had just died and he wanted to attend the funeral. It is more likely that he wanted, as a dutiful son, to wait for his father’s death before going off with Jesus.

But that is not good enough. The call of Jesus transcends needs of family, tradition and culture. The needs of the living outweigh those of the dead. His father might not die for years; what was the man supposed to do in the meantime?

Once we are aware of Jesus’ call the only time to answer is now. In spite of that, we should not read these lines too rigidly. Clearly, for example, there would be times when one would want to be present at the death of a parent, especially to provide support for the grieving spouse. That would be in total harmony with respect for parents and love for the neighbour. But the man in the example is in a totally different situation. He is talking about an event in the future whose time and place are not known.

Finally, another would-be follower asked first for permission to go home and say goodbye to his family. It was similar to a request made by Elisha when he was called to succeed Elijah as prophet (1 Kings 19:19-21). Elijah’s answer was, “Go ahead.” So what we have here seems a very reasonable request, but it is rejected by Jesus who says:

No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Like Jesus himself turning his face towards Jerusalem and all that it means for him, once the decision has been made to serve God and his people, there can be no turning back.

Again, the words of Jesus should not be taken literally. Read in that way, they would be totally at variance with the loving and compassionate quality of Jesus’ character. The point that is being made in all three examples is the absoluteness, the unconditionality that is required in the following of Jesus. It is a theme which is emphasised more than once in Luke’s Gospel. We cannot be fence-sitters, to have our cake and eat it too. Being a follower of Jesus can never be a part-time affair. It is all or nothing. At the same time, the demands of agape-love are always there. It is a matter each time of discerning where the truly loving act lies.

If we are honest, a lot of us are like these men in our following of Christ and in the living out of our faith. We do have our material wants (distinct from needs); we feel we cannot live without ‘our little comforts in life’. Today, let us pray today for a high degree of freedom in being able to accept unconditionally God’s will for us. To have that freedom is one of the greatest blessings and graces of our life.

Monday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Paul continues the defence of his ministry against critics among the Christians of Corinth and speaks both eloquently and movingly about his experiences in working for the gospel. In the Greek, our reading is a single long sentence, incorporating a quotation from Isaiah. The single main verb is “we entreat” (i.e. “we appeal” or “we beg”). Paul is both exercising his ministry of reconciliation and tells how this ministry is carried out. He is saying that his message of reconciliation is being confirmed by the apostolic experience which he describes here.

He begins by calling on all to work together, and urges them to ensure that the grace and love of God, which Paul has opened up for them, not be received in vain. One way of doing this is to become reconciled once again with him.

He quotes from the prophet Isaiah:

At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you. (Is 49:8)

Right now, he tells them, is an acceptable time; the day of their salvation is right here. God is bestowing favour and salvation at this very moment as he addresses his letter to them.

The “day of salvation” is a concept that can be found in many parts of Scripture. It is described by the Jerusalem Bible in this way:

There is an intermediary period between the time of Christ’s first coming and his return. This period is the ‘day of salvation’, a time allowed for conversion; it is granted to the ‘remnant’ and to the pagans. Though the duration is uncertain, this time of pilgrimage may be regarded as being short and full of trials and sufferings which are a prelude to the glory to come. The end is at hand, the day approaches, and it is necessary to be on the watch and to use the time well that remains for one’s own salvation and that of others, leaving the final vindication to God. (edited)

By using this time well, Paul is telling the Corinthians they can guarantee their being united forever with their Lord. At the same time he denies that anything he has done or said can be seen as a stumbling block to their faith. He consistently acts in such a way that no fault can be found with his ministry and that of his companions.

…as servants [Greek, diakonoi] of God we have commended ourselves in every way…

And that is confirmed by the list of experiences which follows in the passage.

Among the proofs of their sincerity is the great amount of suffering and trials they willingly undergo for the sake of preaching the Gospel. Nine items are listed:

…afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger…

There is a paradox here in his pointing to experiences that would not normally be regarded as matters of pride and achievement, but appear very differently when seen through the eyes of faith.

In spite of being so badly treated, he and his companions have proved their credentials as servants of God:

…in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.

The passage concludes with a series of paradoxes—a series of experiences which could not co-exist except in someone whose life was totally devoted to Christ and his Gospel:

We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

Paul perceives his life and work as a reflection of Jesus’ own. The last two examples are an illustration of an apparent contradiction that is characteristic of the true apostle. It is something that can be seen in the lives of the saints, people like St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).

What we see here is the special Christian experience of finding joy, happiness and peace in the midst of hardship, pain, rejection and persecution. This is the peace that Christ gives and which no human agency can take away. And at the same time, it is the common experience that the living out of the Gospel of love and peace can engender such hatred and violence from those who feel threatened by the vision of Christ.

If we compare ourselves with Paul, most of us will find that we give up too easily in the face of criticism, that we expect that our efforts to be good Christians should be met with admiration and respect. Paul was so convinced of Christ’s love for him that nothing that could happen to him could change that conviction. He found Christ present in every experience and his sufferings were for him only a privileged time to share in the sufferings of his Lord.

Monday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 11:29-32

Jesus has just said (last Saturday’s reading):

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28)

Now, with large crowds pressing around him, he throws out a warning which indicates that not many are hearing the word in the sense of accepting and following it:

This generation is an evil generation…

Why? Jesus says this generation is evil because it keeps asking for a sign by which he can prove his credentials. Today he says the only sign they will be given is the “sign of Jonah”.

Jonah was a sign from God to the people of Nineveh, a pagan city which heard his message, repented and was reconciled to God. Jesus too comes on a mission from God (“as the Father has sent me”) and he will find a hearing—not from many of his own people, but from Gentiles.

So, Jesus says, the “queen of the south will rise in judgement” on the present generation for she, a gentile outsider, came from a long distance to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. But Jesus, who now faces this generation, is far greater than Solomon. The “queen of the south” is the queen of Sheba, whose visit to Solomon is recorded in the First Book of Kings (1 Kgs 10:1-10).

Similarly, the people of Nineveh, the great pagan and wicked city, will stand in judgement over the present generation because:

…they repented at the proclamation of Jonah…

And now:

…something greater than Jonah is here!

But they refuse to listen to him.

There is always a danger that we take our faith for granted. Worse, we may even feel we are in a superior and safer position than others not of our faith or denomination. The fact that we carry the name ‘Catholic’ is not enough. Baptism and the reception of the other sacraments is not by itself a guarantee of our salvation. What counts is that we hear, understand, accept and assimilate the word of Jesus and carry it out at every moment of our lives.

Friday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 16:1-8

After the three wonderful parables about God’s mercy and longing for the reconciliation of the sinner, Luke swings back again in chapter 16 with two parables and related teaching about our use of material possessions, and he puts some of the responsibility for our salvation back on ourselves.

The first is a story about a rather dishonest steward or manager. His responsibilities were to handle all the business affairs of his employer. However, he had been mishandling his employer’s funds and was about to be fired. In this context, one may also think of the prodigal son who utterly wasted the inheritance his loving father had given him.

Immediately the steward begins to think of his future. He does not have the strength to do manual labour, and to go begging would be a terrible loss of face. So he thinks of a strategy by which he calls in all his employer’s debtors and reduces the amounts they owe.

The debts incurred were considerable. One hundred measures of olive oil was equivalent to about 800 gallons or the yield of 450 olive trees. One hundred measures of wheat was equal to about 1,000 bushels or the yield of 100 acres. Very few farmers would have had anything like that kind of land in Jesus’ time.

By doing this favour, the steward hopes to be able to find alternative employment with one of them. Surprisingly, his employer, far from being angry, praises the farsightedness of his corrupt steward.

Some commentators question whether the steward was actually acting dishonestly. Was he actually denying his employer money which he was really owed, or was he rather writing off the ‘commission’ which he was usuriously charging, thus inflating the proper amount owed? The Mosaic law forbade taking interest on loans from fellow Jews, so one way of getting round this was to overcharge debtors. By reducing the debts to the proper level, the steward was correcting an injustice and, at the same time, making these debtors favourably disposed towards him. Whatever the interpretation, the point Jesus is making is the same: the steward acted with shrewdness and intelligence to guarantee his future.

Jesus concludes by pointing out that the worldly (“the children of this age”) are far more astute in providing for their future than are those who are regarded as spiritual (”the children of light)”. Jesus is in no way condoning the steward’s dishonest and corrupt behaviour. What he does praise is his clear-sighted preparation for his future.

The lesson for us should also be clear. If a man can do that for his earthly career, what about our future in the life to come? If we want to guarantee our future life with God then we, too, need to take the necessary steps. Those steps are clearly laid out in the Gospel. In general, they involve a life which is built on truth and integrity, and on love, compassion and justice with regard to the people around us. Our task is to work with God in making his will our own and in building up the Kingdom. If we do this on a daily basis, then we have nothing to worry about and our future is assured.

Thursday of Week 2 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Jeremiah 17:5-10

The theme of today’s Mass concerns priorities and is about our responsibilities to those around us. It deals with Cain’s question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and the story of the beggar (Lazarus) and the rich man.

In the First Reading, Jeremiah makes a strong contrast between two kinds of people:

those who think they are self-sufficient, who are immersed in the material world and ignore the place of God in their lives. They feel they ‘have it made’; and
those who put all their trust in God and in the way of life that God suggests.

The lives of the first type are basically arid and empty:

They shall be like a shrub in the desert…

They have no eye for what is really good. Surrounded by luxuries and pleasures, they unwittingly live in a desert. They measure their lives by what they have—not by what they themselves are, and even less by what they are in their relationships with others.

The second group of people are:

…like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Such people may lead lives of great material simplicity, but are in touch with a deeper source of wealth: God’s truth, wisdom and love.

Finally, there is the warning about our ‘gift’ for self-deception. Verse 11, not quoted (for some reason) in today’s reading, is very appropriate:

Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in midlife it will leave them,
and at their end they will prove to be fools.

You can’t take it with you and, while you have it, you need to share it with those who are genuinely deprived. This is clearly the message of today’s Gospel as well.

It is very easy to be persuaded that happiness lies in having things, having status, having power. But God is not interested in things that impress externally; he only judges what goes on in the depths of the heart. Where do I stand in all this? Where do I put my trust? In what are my values?

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