Monday of Week 2 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasted. It was a sign of a deeper commitment to the service of God. Then, how come the disciples of Jesus were not fasting? In their defence, Jesus speaks a kind of parable. A wedding feast is no time for the attendants of the bridegroom to be fasting. It is a time for joy and celebration. Jesus is clearly the bridegroom and his disciples the attendants. A time will come when the bridegroom will no longer be visibly with them—then will come the times when fasting will be appropriate.

Jesus continues with another image. No one uses a piece of new, strong cloth to patch an old garment. At the first sign of stress, the new patch will pull and tear the weaker, old cloth. Similarly, no one puts new, fermenting wine in old, used wineskins. When the new wine ferments and expands, the old skins have no more stretch and will burst. The skins are ruined and the wine lost.

In both images Jesus is saying that he and his teaching, and the Way he is proposing, cannot be judged by the old, traditional standards. Jesus has brought about a radical shift in the ways we are to relate to God and to each other. The traditional ways, identified with the Pharisees and with John the Baptist, were basically those where loyalty to God was expressed through strict observation of laws and external practices of commitment, like fasting. The Way of Jesus is quite different. It is primarily interior, rather than just exterior. It is ultimately rooted in relationships based on love, a love that always seeks the well-being of the other. If we judge what Jesus does by the old ways, we will have difficulties. We need, as Paul says:

…the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)

This is still relevant in our Church today. There are many who still are living their Catholic life with the Pharisee mindset. Many decades now after the Second Vatican Council, there are still people who have not understood the radical shift in thinking that was introduced. In the liturgy, for instance, the changes in some places are often just cosmetic—only on the surface. There are people who still ‘go to Mass’ (note the expression) with basically unchanged attitudes or understanding. Others try to cling to the ‘old days’—Tridentine Masses, continuing to eat fish on Friday, following old devotions (some of which border on the superstitious). There is still a good deal of individualism and ‘saving my soul’, or staying in ‘the state of grace to get to heaven’ mentality.

There are people who still see sin as primarily the breaking of laws and rules, rather than as a breakdown in loving relationships with God, with others and with self. It is possible to be perfectly ‘orthodox’, affirming the doctrinal teaching of the Church to the last detail, and yet be devoid of love in the way one’s life is lived, and showing very little concern for the needy of this world. Sad to say, Pharisaism is alive and well among Christians. But it is like trying to force the ‘new thinking’ of Vatican II into the ‘old wineskins’ of past behaviour.

The new wine of Jesus’ teaching needs to be contained in new wineskins. And some of the problems of the Church in parts of the world where Christians are falling away can be traced to our unwillingness to let go of old wineskins.

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Monday of Week 2 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Hebrews 5:1-10

Today we have a lovely reading on how Jesus fulfils the role of our High Priest. In it we come to realise that the true humanity of Jesus makes him a more, rather than a less, effective high priest to the Christian community. This was something with which the Hebrew Christians, for whom the Letter was written, were having difficulty.

Paul explains that every high priest is a bridge builder between God and his people.

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

The writer is thinking mainly of the role of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. This ritual was celebrated:

…to make atonement for the Israelites once in the year [i.e. annually] for all their sins. (Lev 16:34)

It was on this occasion, too, that the ‘scapegoat’ was sent out into the wilderness, carrying with it all the sins of the people for the past year.

The priesthood, which is connected more with Aaron than Moses, will be treated more fully later in the Letter. In saying that no priest takes the role upon himself, the author may be referring to the fact that in Jesus’ time, the office of the high priest was in the hands of a family who had bought control of it.

The priest:

…is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.

“Deal gently” is a translation of the Greek word metriopathein. This is the only time it appears in the Bible, and it was a term used by the Stoics to express a perfect balance between too much and too little feeling. Here it corresponds more to our word ’empathy’, the ability to enter into the feelings of others.

The priest, as a human being, is familiar with the sins and weaknesses of others because he experiences them in himself. And he has to include his own sinfulness in the offerings. The priest is no ‘super-man’. He is a priest, not because of his superiority over others, but simply because he has been chosen among many to fulfil his intercessory role. This is something over the years which we have tended to ignore, with disastrous consequences in more recent times. As the reading says, it is precisely his sharing in the weaknesses of his fellow human beings which qualifies someone for the role of priest.

That is why the Levitical priest:

…must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.

In our Eucharist too, the celebrant joins with everyone else in confessing his sinfulness during the Introductory Rite.

Being a priest is not an honour that one can confer on oneself; it is truly a calling from God:

…one does not presume to take this honor but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

Even Christ did not take the honour to himself; it was conferred on him by his Father. And Psalm 2 is quoted in support of this:

You are my Son;
today I have begotten you… (Ps 2:7)

And from Psalm 110:

You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek. (Ps 110:4)

The author of Hebrews is the only New Testament writer to quote this verse of Psalm 110 to show that Jesus has been called by God to his role as priest. The implication here is that Christ is both a priest in the order of Melchizedek and that of Aaron, the source of the Levitical priesthood.

The reading now expresses in a most eloquent way how Jesus, our High Priest, really shared in the pain and sufferings of his brothers and sisters. It shows Jesus’ ability to sympathise with sinners because of his own experience of the trials and the weakness of human nature, especially the fear of death. In his present exalted state, weakness is now foreign to him, but he understands what we suffer because of his previous earthly experience.

Some people tend to think that Jesus, as the Son of God and having a divine nature, did not suffer greatly in his passion. On the contrary, the scene in the garden, when he sweat blood (Luke 22:44), indicates the degree of terror that he had with the prospect of what was coming. He begged, through prayers and silent tears, to be spared the pain of a terrible death by crucifixion. And yet, he offered himself so utterly to his Father, he submitted himself so completely, that his prayer was heard.

But this did not mean that he was spared from suffering and death. On the contrary, he learnt through his suffering the real meaning of total listening and submission to and union with his father:

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered…

Jesus was not saved from dying because that was the ultimate purpose of his coming among us, but he will later be rescued from death.

And so, in a complete meeting of wills with his Father, he was “made perfect”. He becomes for all those who unite themselves completely with him, the source of salvation and of wholeness. He becomes our Priest forever, a:

…high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

He does that by his total submission to the will of his Father and he points the way for us to follow.

This passage is so full of meaning for all of us. Pain and suffering of some kind will be part of everyone’s life. Like Jesus, we will often pray that that pain be taken away, but sometimes we learn that it is precisely in the pain that God is to be found. He is there not to take the pain away, nor to help us get round it, but to go through it. It is a paradox of life and one which we need to reflect on, namely, that a life entirely devoid of the challenge of pain is somehow an incomplete life. It is in dealing with our own pain and the pain of others that we grow in strength and maturity—and in love and compassion. And, strange to say, it is there too that we can find deep happiness.

And when we are deeply puzzled by acts of unspeakable violence or devastating natural disasters, and ask why so many innocent people suffer, we need to gaze at a crucifix and ask the same question: “Why did God not spare his own Son?”

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