Thursday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Jeremiah 7:23-28
The theme of today’s readings is expressed in the final line of the Gospel:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Luke 11:23)
Jeremiah makes strong statements about how God’s people do not listen to his words. The covenant was:
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
But that is not what has happened, says Jeremiah, in spite of so many messengers and prophets sent to speak to the people:
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.
As the Gospel of today indicates in Jesus’ confrontation with some Pharisees, when people do not want to believe, there is nothing that will change their minds. They will refuse to acknowledge goodness staring them in the face.
We are not here to sit in judgement on our predecessors. Readings like this are intended to help us take a closer look at ourselves. What we need to do is to ask how these words of Jeremiah apply to us. How carefully do we listen? How well do we carry out the will of God in our lives? How clearly can we discern the presence of God in our daily situations? What kind of influence or force are we in our communities? Are we a force for greater unity or for division?
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Tuesday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Daniel 3:25,34-43
As described in the Vatican II Sunday Missal, today’s reading from Daniel is:
“…one of the most beautiful and sincere prayers in the Bible. Expressing the abandonment of 2nd century BC Judaism, this prayer pleads that the contrite heart and humble spirit of the people be accepted by God. This prayer is quoted in the offertory of every Mass.”
The context of the passage is a famous scene from the Book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar had set up a huge golden statue in Babylon. All the officials were then summoned together for its dedication. At the sound of many musical instruments, all were called to prostrate themselves in worship of the statue. Anyone who refused would immediately be thrown into a mighty furnace.
It was reported to the king that some of his officials who were Jews had ignored his command. These were Shadrach, Meschach and Azariah (the Hebrew name for Abednego). They were immediately summoned before the king and asked to account for themselves. When asked why they had not prostrated themselves before the statue, they said:
O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.
(Dan 3:16-18)
This reply enraged the king to such an extent that he ordered the furnace to be made seven times hotter. The three men were then thrown fully clothed into the furnace. It was so hot that the men throwing the three young men into the furnace were themselves burnt to death.
However, the three men were seen walking in the flames and they began praying aloud. Today’s passage is a part of their long prayer, led by Azariah, (see Dan 3:24-90*) of praise and thanksgiving, while the king’s servants continued to stoke the fire.
The king watched in amazement and said:
Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?…But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt… (Dan 3:92-93)
Clearly, the fourth figure was an angel of the Lord sent to protect these faithful servants of Yahweh. The king finally ordered the men to be taken from the fire—their clothes not even singed—and had the highest honours showered on them as a tribute to their God:
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. (Dan 3:95)
It is in this context that we read today’s passage. Azariah’s prayer begins with a plea for God not to abandon his people, nor to forget the covenant he promised so many descendants of Abraham. In faraway Babylon, separated by hundreds of miles from their religious centre in Jerusalem, there is a recognition that they are despised, abandoned and leaderless, and without their traditional religious rituals of worship:
…we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader,
no burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense,
no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy.
However, they pray that, even without holocausts of rams and bullocks, they can commit themselves completely to their God:
And now with all our heart we follow you;
we fear you and seek your presence.
They beg to be treated with mercy and gentleness. They at least hope that a truly repentant heart will win God’s forgiveness, and they put themselves totally at the feet of God’s mercy and compassion.
In fact, it is not necessary to do things ‘to win God’s favour’. Once we put ourselves completely in his hands, he will take care of us as he did with the three young men.
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*Note: These verses from the Song of the Three Men in the Fiery Furnace are found only in the Greek text of the Old Testament, not the Hebrew text. Hence, they are not quoted in most non-Catholic Bibles. Although we only have the Greek text, it is believed that the original was in Aramaic or Hebrew, and hence is included in Catholic Bibles.
Tuesday of Week 3 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 18:21-35
This passage makes a crucial link between God’s forgiving us, and our forgiving others. Peter asks how many times he should forgive another, and offers what he regards as a very generous seven times. Jesus multiplies that by eleven. In other words, our readiness to forgive should be without limit.
The reason is because that is the way God himself acts towards us. Suppose we only had seven chances of being forgiven our sins in our lifetime, and suppose we were to confess our sins to a priest and were told: “Sorry, you have used up your quota.” Don’t we believe that every single time we genuinely repent, we can renew our relationship with God?
Jesus is simply telling us that, if we are to be his followers, we must act on the same basis with other people. To make his teaching clear, he tells the parable of the two servants. The one with the huge debt is forgiven by the king. He then proceeds to throttle another servant who owes what is, by comparison, a paltry amount.
As indicated in the parable, there is no real proportion between the offence of our sins against an all-holy God, and those made against us by others. And every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, we commit ourselves to this:
Forgive us our sins just as we forgive those who sin against us.
It is indeed a courageous prayer to make. Do we really mean what we say? Do we even think about it when we pray it?
This teaching does not mean turning a blind eye to a person who keeps on doing harm to us. Forgiveness is more than just saying words; it involves an attempt at the restoring of a broken relationship. It involves working for the healing of both sides. With some offences against us, it may be necessary to make a proactive, but totally non-violent response. Our main concern should not be ourselves, but the well-being of the other person whose actions are really self-harmful.
Finally, while forgiveness is a unilateral act, reconciliation is not. Reconciliation is only possible if the two parties are able to come together and do whatever they must to restore the relationship—either offering and/or seeking forgiveness. And while it is certainly difficult for me to forgive when the other party remains totally unrepentant, I can do so with God’s help, even though I may not be reconciled with the other person.
God’s absolute willingness to forgive, no matter how many times we have injured him by our sins, may not be comprehensible to the person who has offended and is unrepentant. (Remember the Prodigal Son, whose healing only began when he came to his senses and returned to his Father to ask forgiveness.) God always wants us to work on bringing about a healing of the wound of division between both sides in conflict. Only when both parties do their part, then, is reconciliation possible and forgiveness complete, and that may take a long time.
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Friday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Hosea 14:2-10
Both of today’s readings are about our total commitment to God. Regarding the First Reading, the Vatican II Missal tells us:
“More than any other prophet, Hosea tells about God’s love for his people.”
After many negative words from the prophet to God’s people, Hosea in this last part of his book sounds a note of hope, which he had already hinted at earlier. Today’s passage is a liturgical prayer expressing sincere repentance, concluding with a firm promise of God’s blessing.
In this closing passage of his book, Hosea calls the people back to God. The troubles they have been experiencing are due to their alienation from God. If they will only come back to him, where they belong, their lives will flourish. God is only too anxious to shower his love and gifts on them.
Hosea urges the people to say:
Take away all guilt;
accept that which is good,
and we will offer
the fruit of our lips.
In other words, expressions of true repentance will take the place of purely external rituals.
There is there not much good in looking for help from powerful neighbours like Assyria, nor from those who “ride upon horses” (perhaps a reference to Egypt). Rather, God is the one in whom “the orphan finds mercy.”
God will bring his healing:
I will heal their disloyalty;
I will love them freely…
These gifts and their results are expressed in lovely phrases taken from plant life:
I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.
His shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
They shall again live beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish as a garden;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
God then compares himself to the greenness of a cypress tree (and this is unique in the Old Testament), a source of life and fruitfulness for his people.
If we could learn that only through the way of life which God proposes can we find the true fulfilment of our deepest longings, then we will experience a deep happiness throughout our life. During this Lent let us open our hearts to a total and unconditional love of God and of those around us.
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Wednesday of Week 3 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 5:17-19
In Matthew’s Gospel especially, Jesus is shown as not being a maverick breakaway from the traditions of the Jews. He was not a heretic or a blasphemer. He was the last in the great line of prophets sent by God to his people:
…he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ (Matt 21:37)
So in today’s passage, Jesus strongly emphasises that it is not his intention to abrogate the Jewish law, but rather to develop and complete it. In the verses that immediately follow today’s passage, Jesus gives six very clear examples of what he means. He quotes a number of moral situations contained in the Law, and shows how he expects his followers not only to observe them, but to go much further in understanding their underlying meaning.
The Law is not to be downgraded in any way. Rather, it is to be transcended to a higher level. Up to the time of Jesus—and this is clearly exemplified in the Pharisees and scribes as they appear in the Gospels—perfect observance of the Law focused on external acts. Jesus will show that true observance must also be in the heart and mind.
Christians, too, can become obsessed with external observance of Church laws and regulations. It can become a source of scrupulosity and fear. This can happen during the Lenten season when we are encouraged to do ‘penitential acts’. We need to remember that these acts do not stand on their own. They only have meaning if they deepen our relationship with God. In all things, our ultimate guide must be the law of love. No truly loving act can ever be sinful, although at times it may violate the letter of a law.
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Wednesday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9
Moses reminds the Israelites of the great treasure they have in their laws and customs, a treasure full of “wisdom and discernment”. These laws are life-giving and will bring the people closer to their God:
For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
Other Jewish traditions from this period often emphasise the distance between God and man, indicated by the reluctance even to utter the name of God (as we see even in Matthew’s Gospel).
However, Deuteronomy calls attention to the loving intimacy between God and the people among whom he lives. His enduring presence was symbolised by the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in the centre of the Israelites’ camp, and by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which indicated God’s accompanying presence with his people at all times.
God’s love for humanity will find its supreme expression, however, in the Incarnation, when the Word of God “became flesh and lived among us” as one of us—a concept many devout Jews would find very hard to accept.
But it is in the Law, too, that God is with his people. Through its observance, they express their closeness to him. Yet Jesus was to make radical modifications to this Law to bring it to even greater heights of sensitivity and accountability.
The greatness of any society can in part be measured, first, in the quality of its legal system and, second, in how its laws are administered and observed. This involves close cooperation between law-makers, enforcers of the law, interpreters of the law and observers of the law.
But above everything else, as Jesus clearly indicates in today’s Gospel, is the law of love which does not abrogate, but goes far beyond the Mosaic Law and includes a deep sense of justice, of compassion and unity between people.
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Monday of Week 3 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 4:24-30
This Gospel, and the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42), are both linked by the story told in today’s First Reading about Naaman, a Syrian general, who was miraculously cured by Elisha the prophet.
The Gospel is the second part of the scene in the synagogue in Nazareth, where Jesus officially announces his mission as Messiah, Saviour and Liberator. The first reaction was one of amazement that Jesus, their townsman, could speak with such power:
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. (Luke 4:22)
There was amazement, but no real faith in him. Familiarity had blinded them to his true identity, and they reject him. For them he is just ‘Joe the carpenter’s boy’.
Jesus says he is not surprised by this reception:
Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
He then goes on to give two examples taken from the lives of two well-known Old Testament prophets. They are not quite examples of prophets not being received by their own people, but rather of prophets reaching out to other peoples, non-believers.
When there was a great famine among the Israelites, it was a Sidonian widow who was helped by Elijah. Sidon was the place where Jesus would heal a gentile woman’s daughter. There were many leprous people in Israel, says Jesus, but Elisha was sent to cure Naaman the Syrian, another Gentile.
Jesus’ hearers are incensed by what appear to them arrogant and insulting words. In their minds, they were not rejecting a prophet, but an impostor. They find his remarks about Elijah and Elisha highly objectionable.
The references to Elijah and Elisha help to emphasise Luke’s image of Jesus as a prophet like those who went before him. They also lay the foundation for the future mission of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
We too can very easily fail to recognise the voice of God in certain people who in fact—whether they are aware of it or not—are bringing a message from him. Like the people of Nazareth, we can think we know them too well to have to listen to them. We feel it would be inconceivable that God could speak to us through such people. Fair warning that this probably happens most of all with people we see every day during our lives.
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Monday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on 2 Kings 5:1-15
The central character in today’s First Reading is Naaman, an army commander from Syria under the king of Aram, probably Ben-Hadad II. He was held in high esteem by his king because of military victories, which the Bible attributes to the power of Yahweh. In the writer’s view, victory is to be attributed to the God of Israel, who is seen as the ruler and controller of the fate of all nations, and not just that of Israel.
Now, Naaman was a ‘leper’. The New Jerusalem Bible calls his condition a “virulent skin disease” because, whatever it was, it did not seem to exclude Naaman from coming into close contact with people. In ancient times, real leprosy was, tragically for the victim, often confused with other chronic skin diseases.
Although Israel had concluded a peace treaty with the Aramaeans during the reign of King Ahab, there were still minor skirmishes on the borders between the two states for control of a place called Ramoth Gilead. These followed a battle in which King Ahab had been killed. It was as a result of one of these skirmishes that a young Israelite girl was taken captive. She would prove the link in bringing healing to Naaman.
We could well stop to reflect for a few moments on this young girl. Although a simple slave, she played a crucial role in the healing and, together with the austere prophet Elisha, offered a startling contrast to the ostentatious wealth of Naaman—wealth which had no role to play in his being restored to health.
She knew about the prophet Elisha, who was living in Samaria and suggested that her master should go to him for healing. The king, Ben-Hadad, gave his full approval for Naaman to go to Samaria and see Elisha and promised to write a letter of introduction to King Joram of Israel. The Syrian king obviously believed that Elisha was subject to Joram and that the prophet’s services could only be bought with a generous gift—hence the 10 talents of silver (a huge amount of money), 6,000 shekels of gold and the 10 festal robes which Naaman brought with him. He thought that God’s gift of healing could only be bought with money.
On the other hand, King Joram is horrified by this and rends his clothes in despair. His own faith in God’s healing power was so weak that he thought that Ben-Hadad was simply looking for a pretext for war by asking the obviously impossible—the cure of a leper. But when Elisha hears of it, he scolds the king for his failure to consult his prophet.
Naaman now arrives in all the glory of someone in his exalted position with horses and chariots. He will overawe the prophet by his presence, power and show of wealth. He must then have been somewhat surprised to be told by the prophet what he must do. And what he had to do was to bathe seven times in the River Jordan. Elisha clearly indicates that the healing power comes from the power of the God of Israel, but only if the general does what he is told by the prophet.
The prophet himself was not strictly speaking a healer. Ritual washings were practiced among the Eastern religions as a purification rite, and the number seven was generally known as a symbol of completeness. Naaman was to wash in the muddy waters of the Jordan River, showing that there was no natural connection between the washing and the desired healing. Perhaps it was also being suggested that one needed to pass through the Jordan, as Israel had done (see Jos 3—4), in order to obtain healing from the God of Israel. Much later, Jesus would also pass through the same waters of the Jordan and be filled with the Spirit of his Father.
Naaman finds this an affront to his dignity. He expected the prophet to come out to him, wave his hand magically over the afflicted spots and effect an immediate cure. Instead, he has to do what he is told by someone he regards as a foreign underling. And what is worse, he is asked to bathe in the Jordan. What was wrong with the rivers that flowed through Damascus—the Abana and Pharpar? The Abana was called the ‘Golden River’ by the Greeks and is usually identified with the Barada River today, which rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows through the city of Damascus. The Pharpar River flows eastwards from Mount Hermon, just to the south of Damascus. In fact, the waters of these rivers were hygienically far superior to the muddy waters of the Jordan. But that was precisely the point—it was not the water which brought the healing.
Deeply insulted, Naaman turns round to go home. But his servants plead with him. After all, if Naaman had been asked to do something difficult, he would have done so. Why not obey the prophet when he asks something so easy? Naaman puts his pride behind him, goes to the river seven times and emerges with his skin like that of a new-born child. He is both physically and spiritually reborn.
However, we need to be aware that there is a deeper meaning to the story. Naaman, the Gentile submitting to the command of Yahweh through his prophet, is put forward as a contrast to a disobedient Israel, which still wavered in its divided allegiance to Yahweh and to Baal. God’s blessings are only to be found in total submission to his will and his commands. In today’s Gospel, Jesus will bring up this point himself, much to the anger of the Jews to whom he was speaking.
The clear lesson of the story is given in the last sentence when, after being cured, Naaman goes back in gratitude to Elisha and says:
Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel…
A minor lesson for all of us arises from Naaman’s indignation at being told to bathe seven times in the river Jordan. Wisdom comes from the slaves in his household who said to their master:
…if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?
How often do we not see God coming into our lives because of our prejudices and blind spots?
It must be understood from this passage that the true healer is not Elisha, nor the muddy waters of the Jordan river, but God himself. And the healing is the result, not of the washing in the river, but of Naaman’s eventual submission and obedience to God’s spokesman.
It was exactly the lack of this attitude on the part of the people of Nazareth (spoken of in today’s Gospel) that prevented Jesus from healing the people of his own town.
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