Saturday of Week 8 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Mark 11:27-33

Jesus has now come to Jerusalem.  It is the last phase of his public life and hostility is building up against him.  In today’s reading, while walking in the Temple area, he is confronted by a group of Jewish leaders, chief priests, scribes and elders.  These are the people who formed the supreme council which will later condemn him to death. They ask:

By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?

The implication is that he is not doing it on their authority, which they regard as supreme.  In his usual manner, Jesus counters with another question.  He asks them if the work of John the Baptist was of human or divine origin.

They immediately realise that answering Jesus’ question raises a serious dilemma. If they were to say John’s baptism was from God, then it could be asked why they did not take part in it (as large numbers of the ordinary people did—and as Jesus himself did).  The Gospel had described the leaders as simply coming to observe John as outsiders and judges.

On the other hand, if they were to say they considered John’s baptism as merely a human thing, then it would offend all those people who had the highest respect for John and saw in him a prophet of God.

Weakly Jesus’ questioners reply: “We do not know.”  A strange and not very convincing reply from the spiritual leaders of the people! Jesus then refuses to answer the question they asked him.

But Jesus’ case was similar to that of John.  The people, who had heard Jesus speak (“Never has anyone spoken like this!”) and saw his cures (“God has visited his people”), had no doubts whatever about the source of Jesus’ authority:

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)

The leaders’ own question was a clear indication of their prejudice and wilful blindness in the face of overwhelming evidence.

We too, of course, can have a similar blindness.  We can refuse to see the presence and activity of God in situations where we do not want to see it—or in people where we do not want to see it.  But God can use any person, any experience, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, to communicate with us. We pray:

Help me, Lord, to seek and find and respond to you in every experience of my life.

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Saturday of Week of Week 8 of Ordinary Time

Commentary on Sirach 51:12-20

Today, we finish our selected readings from Sirach with a poem which is a quest for wisdom. It comes from the last chapter and closing pages of the book.

In the original Hebrew text it is an ‘alphabetical poem’ in which each verse begins with a consecutive letter of the alphabet. Sadly, the original version has not reached us in a good state of preservation. Our English-language reading follows the Greek. A good example of a similarly constructed poem can be found in Proverbs 31, which gives a picture of the perfect housewife, and which can be read on the feasts of ‘Holy Men and Women’.

The poem describes the approach to wisdom through prayer, persistent study and instruction, purification from sin, enlightenment and ardent desire. Ben Sira opens with words of praise and thanks to God and what follows is an autobiographical poem on Wisdom.

As a young man, before he set out on his travels, he was already praying for the gift of wisdom.

Outside the sanctuary I would pray for her, and to the last I will continue to seek her.

From the earliest stages to its maturation, “from her blossoming to the ripening of her grape”, he has delighted in her. Once again he personifies Wisdom as a ‘she’.

Now, since his young days he has been walking in her steps and so has been able to follow a straight path. By paying careful attention, he has learned much from her. And, because of her, he has made great progress.

Glory be to him who has given me wisdom!

God is the source of all Wisdom and it is perhaps the greatest gift that God can give to anyone. Wisdom gives vision, the ability to see and understand the meaning and direction of life. What could be more precious? When God asked the new king Solomon what he would most like as a gift from God, he asked for wisdom, a reply which greatly pleased God.

The writer says that from his youth he has sought wisdom and has continued to cultivate it.

I became resolutely devoted to her. It was the good I persistently strove for. I will not be put to shame.

In his struggle to possess her – like a lover pursuing the beloved – he has kept the Law scrupulously. He has reached to Heaven, to the God from which she comes, and bemoans his ignorance of her.

He has directed his whole being towards her and “in purity”, by a life of perfect integrity, has found her.

The search for wisdom is one we also should pursue. There is no greater treasure we can have in life because, more than anything it brings us closer to God and to the end for which we were made. Through wisdom, we understand how all things relate to each other, to God and to ourselves. It is based, not on knowledge, but on deep insight into what we know. As mentioned at the beginning, wisdom has to be worked for. It comes through prayer, through a constant effort to understand every experience in life, through freeing ourselves from everything which threatens our wholeness and integrity as persons, and through various forms of enlightenment and a deep desire that she be part of our being.

Let us repeat again and again the prayer of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark’s gospel:

Lord, that I may see.

And, when Bartimaeus was able to see, he became a disciple of Christ and walked on the road with them to Jerusalem to share in Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

Wisdom consists in being able to see – seeing with great clarity. Without it, we grope in the darkness.

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