Monday of Week 15 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Exodus 1:8-14,22
Immediately following the end of Genesis, we move into reading the next book of the Pentateuch, the book of the Exodus (Greek, Exodos) or the ‘Going Out’. The ‘Going In’ was partially realised by the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land, but only fully completed with the resurrection and ascension of the crucified Jesus the Christ.
The book tells of the departure of the Israelites from a life of slavery in Egypt. We saw that the last word in Genesis was “Egypt.” However, a long period has passed since the death of Joseph and the present plight of God’s People under the Pharaohs. Exodus recounts the oppression by the Egyptians of the ever-increasing descendants of Jacob followed by their miraculous deliverance by God through Moses, who led them across the Red Sea to Mount Sinai where they entered into a special covenant with the Lord.
These events were of prime importance to the Chosen People, who became an independent nation having a unique relationship with God. Through Moses, God gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai the “Law”: the moral, civil and ritual legislation by which they were to become a holy people, in whom the promise of a Saviour for all mankind would be fulfilled.
We will spend the next three weeks going through this book. There are two central themes:
- the slavery and the deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Exod 1:1—15:21) and
- the Covenant on Sinai (Exod 19:1—40:38).
Connecting these two is the secondary theme of the Journey through the Wilderness (Exod 15:22—18:27).
The central figure is Moses, arguably Israel’s greatest prophet. It is he who will lead his people out of the bondage in Egypt to the foot of Mount Sinai. There, in a majestic and dramatic setting, God makes a solemn alliance with his people and hands down his law, the law which is at the heart of Israel’s life, and around which the whole of the Old Testament revolves.
At the end of Genesis we saw how Joseph had brought his people to live in Egypt under very favourable conditions. The opening paragraph of Exodus makes the link between that time and the present. The 11 brothers of Joseph, the sons of Jacob-Israel, had settled in Egypt and we are told that altogether, Jacob had 70 direct descendants (literally, ‘coming from the loins of Jacob’), presumably by a multiplicity of wives.
Now, some 400 years later the situation has changed:
…a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
Pharaoh, in Egyptian, is Per-aa, meaning ‘the great House’ and was the usual designation of the Palace or the Court, but from the 18th Dynasty onwards, referred to the king’s own person.
He resented the growing numbers and the increasing power of the Hebrews in his kingdom:
He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
The implication is that an important source of slave labour would be lost. Ironically, they would in fact leave the country, but with the help of an ally the Pharaoh had not taken into account.
It was the beginning of the long and sad story of antisemitism and of all kinds of racial and ethnic discrimination—by no means a thing of the past now, some 3,000 years later.
The Pharaoh took two steps to subjugate the Hebrews: first, they were reduced to doing forced labour under Egyptian taskmasters. For their massive undertakings the kings of this time in general always used forced labour. In Israel, David was to do so (2 Sam 20:24) and Solomon even more so in his building of the Temple. The Hebrews were involved in major construction projects, specifically, the building of the supply or store cities of Pithom and Rameses. Rameses was the residence in the Nile Delta of Pharaoh Rameses II. It is now identified with either the contemporary town of Tanis or Qantir.
Yet, the greater the oppression, the more the Hebrew population increased. As a result, the working conditions became even more severe, and the Hebrews were virtually reduced to slavery and doing the most difficult work.
It is not part of our reading, but it is interesting to note that the Pharaoh told the Hebrew midwives:
When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. (Exod 1:16)
The midwives, however, “feared God” and disobeyed the ruling. When called to account, they replied:
…the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. (Exod 1:19)
Finally though:
Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
The stage is being set for the birth of one particular boy—Moses—and God’s intervention on behalf of his suffering people.
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Monday of Week 15 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 10:34—11:1
Today, we come to the final part of Jesus’ apostolic discourse in chapter 10. At a first reading, today’s passage could be puzzling, if not to say highly disturbing to some. Jesus seems to contradict everything that he has said and done so far.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
But do we not call Jesus the Prince of Peace? Does Jesus not say during the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel (14:27) that he has come to give his peace to his disciples, a peace that no one will ever be able to take away from them?
And Jesus goes on to apply to himself a passage from the prophet Micah (7:6):
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
It sounds a terrible thing for Jesus our Saviour to be saying. But it expresses, not what he wants to happen, but what he sees as an inevitable outcome of his message of love. It says more about us than about him.
Unfortunately, what Jesus says has only been confirmed again and again. We have mentioned before the paradox that Jesus’ message of truth, love, justice and freedom for people everywhere is seen by some as highly subversive and dangerous. And people who subscribe to this vision of Jesus and try to implement it in their lives are likely to run into headlong opposition with those who have a totally different vision of life and who see Jesus’ vision as a real threat to their interests. In a world of conflicting ideologies, philosophies, cultures, traditions, ethnic and religious identities, to declare that one is opting for the Way of Jesus is often to invite opposition, persecution and even death.
What Jesus says here is a fact—and was already a known experience when this Gospel was written. Christianity divided families and, in some places, it still does. But people who see and understand and accept the vision of life that Jesus offers know they have no choice but to follow it, even if close family members object. To go with Christ is to enter a new family, with new bonds—a family which, for its part, does not at all reject those who reject it. The Christian may be hounded and hated and expelled by family members, but that is not the way he or she is going to respond to them. On the contrary, the dearest wish of the new Christian is for family members to be able to see what he or she sees and, until they do, that new Christian will pray for them, bless them and love them.
Jesus then goes on to lay down the conditions necessary to be a genuine disciple.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…
In many cultures this is a hard saying and seems to fly in the face of the filial piety and respect for the authority of elders which is at the heart of such societies.
It is not, in fact, a conflict. Love and respect for family members is a very high value for the Christian, but there are even higher values which may take precedence. Filial piety and parental authority can be very inward-looking, too centred on just this group of people. Racial, national and religious identity can also be very narrow and intolerant in its understanding.
Christianity is outward-looking and realises that there are people out there whose needs are even prior to those of my family. To the Christian, members of his or her blood family are only some among many brothers and sisters who have to be loved, served and cared for. One is also never bound to follow family requirements which would be against such values as truth, love, justice and honesty. As a Christian, I cannot obey a parent or other family member who practices dishonesty in business, who cheats, who sexually abuses, who practices racism or narrow-minded nationalism and the like and urges me to do the same.
Jesus, as the Word of God, stands for a level of truth and integrity and love which is the ultimate measure of all that I do and say. I cannot conform to the wishes of anyone, however close, who falls short of that measure. But my Christian love and concern for that person will not be diminished, in spite of how I may be treated.
To live like this can at time involve pain, separation, intense suffering and even death. This, I think, is what Jesus means when he says that I am not worthy of him unless I am willing to take my cross and walk with him. There is a price to be paid for being true and loving and just. This also is what he means by ‘finding’ life and ‘losing’ my life. To ‘find’ life is to take the easy way of accommodation and compromise, not to mention material gain and pleasure; to ‘lose’ is to let go and let Jesus take charge. Of course, as Jesus points out, in the long run it is the ‘losers’ who find and the ‘finders’ who lose.
The discourse ends with some advice about finding Jesus in other people, especially his own followers. Anyone who welcomes a follower of Jesus, whether that person is a ‘prophet’ (a missionary) or a ‘holy man’ (an ordinary Christian), welcomes Jesus himself and welcomes the Father also. Even giving a cup of cold water to someone will not go unrewarded.
The discourse is then clearly brought to an end by Matthew, saying:
…when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.
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