Friday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:18,21-30

Paul continues to defend his credentials against those ‘super apostles’ he felt were misleading the Christians of Corinth. Apparently they were boasting of their qualifications, so Paul feels he must do the same and he is confident their record is no match for his own.

He begins by pointing to his own impeccable Jewish credentials. It looks as if that was just what the ‘super apostles’ were trying to do at Paul’s expense. On several occasions in his letters, Paul appealed to his Jewish past.

But he can certainly match their credentials—and even more. Like them he is a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a son of Abraham. Elsewhere he tells that he was even a Pharisee. In other places, Paul distinguishes authentic from inauthentic heirs of Abraham. Here he allows his opponents to claim descent from Abraham, but only to emphasise the claim that immediately follows. He even allows them to call themselves ministers and servants of Christ, because he has further credentials which they cannot come near matching.

He goes on to describe what his ministry of Christ has involved. The long list of trials and hardships are what he has been prepared to undergo in the service of his humiliated and crucified Lord. There is no way his opponents can match this level of service and dedication.

For the sake of Christ and for the preaching of the Gospel he has been through far more than any of them—far greater labours, far more imprisonments, far worse beatings and numerous brushes with death. There follows a long list of hardships, sufferings and dangers—all the result of his unstinting efforts to get the message of Christ through to people. Apart from what Paul enumerates here, there is no other record of these hardships in the New Testament.

He mentions the following:

• Five times receiving 39 lashes (the legal limit) from the Jews
• Three times beaten with rods
• Stoned once
• Three times shipwrecked
• A night and a day waiting to be rescued at sea
• Frequent journeys with dangers from rivers, from robbers, from his own people, from Gentiles
• Dangers in cities and in the wilderness
• Dangers at sea
• Dangers among brothers who proved treacherous
• Toil and hardship
• Sleepless nights
• Hunger and thirst
• Frequent fastings, which may have been voluntary or involuntary
• Experiencing cold and exposure

On top of all that, there were his concerns about the well-being of the churches. He has always totally identified with their problems:

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

Finally however, if he really must boast, he will boast of his weakness. We will see more about that weakness in our final reading tomorrow.

He knows his rivals cannot match this record of dedication and self-sacrifice and his total commitment to the needs of his people. He can match them on every other level, but they can come nowhere near him in what he has been prepared to suffer for the sake of the gospel. He offers this as proof of the genuineness of his apostleship over what he sees as preachers of novelty.

Paul’s list is highly impressive and very few of us have been called or will be called to make anything like the same sacrifices for the living and sharing of our Christian life. But perhaps we could do more than we have done so far and be more ready to undergo some inconveniences for the sake of Christ and those who are hungering for his Word.

We can ask ourselves the threefold question:

What have I done for Christ?
What am I doing for Christ?
What will I do for Christ?

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Friday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 6:19-23

This short passage contains two related teachings. The first may be seen as a commentary on the petition in the Lord’s Prayer:

Give us this day our daily bread…

It is a teaching about the things which are really valuable, which really count. We live in a highly materialistic world where a very large number of people seem to believe that material wealth is the solution to every problem. There is nothing that money cannot buy—no problem it cannot solve. This belief prevails even though every day it is shown to be false.

Jesus urges us to put our trust and our security in something less perishable, something more lasting. To ‘store up treasure in heaven’ is not just to pile up a whole lot of ‘good works’ which will be to our credit in the next life. That credit too can be very quickly lost. It is much more a question of growing more and more into the kind of person who is steeped in the values and the outlook of the gospel. It is less a question of doing than of becoming. We also build treasure by what we give away, by sharing with others whatever gifts we have, especially those most in need.

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)

And, as Jesus so wisely says:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Obviously, the questions for me to ask today are: Where is my treasure? What do I value most in life? And how do I reveal that in the way I live?

And that brings us to the second part:

The eye is the lamp of the body.

It is that light which we need in order to have a clear vision of what is most valuable in our lives. The person who cannot see beyond money, status, power, or fame is truly in darkness. Life is not about getting these things. Life is about who we are; it is about love and relationships.

Let us pray today for vision and light to be able to discern what are the real treasures, the most precious things of human living. In that way, our life truly becomes a Christian life.

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