Monday of Week 16 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 12:38-42

Today’s passage follows two others, which we have not read. In the first, Jesus is accused of doing what he does by the power of Satan (Matt 12:22-32). This is an accusation which he easily shows is self-contradictory and makes no sense. In the second, he says that a tree which is rotten inside cannot produce good fruit (Matt 12:33-37). Goodness comes from a person’s interior. The words are directed at his accusers whom he more than once accuses of being hypocrites—pious and law-abiding on the outside, but full of malice inside.

It is these same people who approach him today. It is difficult to know their mood as they ask Jesus for a sign. Is it a genuine request for Jesus to indicate the source of his authority and power, or is it a hostile demand for Jesus to present his credentials?

In response, Jesus first says that:

An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Yes, “evil and adulterous”, because for anyone with an open mind, Jesus has been giving nothing but signs ever since he began his public life. The ordinary people have been full of praise and amazement at what Jesus is doing and say:

A great prophet has risen among us!…God has visited his people! (Luke 7:16)

But these leaders, blinded by their own prejudice, are even saying that the teaching, exorcisms and healings of Jesus are the work of Satan.

In addition to all this, they are going to get an unmistakable sign of who Jesus really is. They will be given “the sign of the prophet Jonah”:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.

This is a clear reference to Jesus’ resurrection—the conclusive sign of his identity and power.

Mention of Jonah leads Jesus to say that:

…people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something [i.e. Jesus] greater than Jonah is here!

Similarly:

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!

This of course also refers to Jesus, who is greater by far than Solomon.

We, too, have the privilege of listening to Jesus and we know the sign of his resurrection. Is it not possible that there are many people around us who, not knowing Jesus, but following the guidance of their consciences, will find themselves going before us into the Kingdom?

Complacency is probably one of our biggest temptations: “I am good enough; I observe the basic requirements of my religion.” Is that all that Jesus expects of me?

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Monday of Week 16 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Exodus 14:5-18

At the end of last week, we saw the Israelites setting out on their escape journey out of Egypt. The story is interrupted by a number of religious instructions for later generations arising out of the Exodus experience, including regulations for the Passover, the consecration of the first-born to the Lord, and the feast of the Unleavened Bread.

When the story of the departure is taken up again, we are told that God instructed the people not to follow the shortest route through the land of the Philistines along the shores of the Mediterranean to Canaan. This was the objective of their journey, the Promised Land. Instead, they were told to follow a more “roundabout way of the wilderness bordering the Red Sea.” The reason given was that to go that shortest route would have involved a lot of fighting with the local people. It will eventually take them 40 event-filled years before they will reach their objective.

We are also told that on their journey:

The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. (Exod 13:21)

This is possibly one and the same preternatural phenomenon, a central nucleus of fire surrounded by smoke; only at night was its luminous nature visible.

Both cloud and fire are regularly symbols of God’s presence in the Scriptures. We saw Moses talking with God in a burning bush. In the Gospel, during the Transfiguration, God’s presence is shown by the cloud that comes down on the three Apostles, and Jesus, at his ascension, is taken up into a cloud. At Pentecost, God’s presence is indicated by the tongues of fire on each one present.

The erratic route followed by the Israelites gave the impression that they were lost in the wilderness, leading the Pharaoh to change his mind and go in pursuit of them. But this was all part of God’s plan. It is at this point we pick up today’s reading. 

When the Pharaoh heard that the Hebrews had fled, he and his officials changed their minds about letting them go. They suddenly realised that they were going to lose a major work force for their construction projects. 

So the Egyptians set out in pursuit with the cream of their armed forces. The Pharaoh:

…took six hundred elite chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

God had made the Pharaoh so obstinate that he went in pursuit of the Hebrews who were marching away in triumph with their God behind them. The Egyptian forces caught up with the Hebrews in their encampment by the sea at Pi-hahiroth, facing Baal-Zephon. These places have not been definitively identified and even their position related to each is not clear. Perhaps the former was on the west shore of the sea, where the Israelites were, and the latter was on the opposite shore.

Pharaoh was almost on top of them when the Hebrews became aware of their presence. Filled with alarm, they cried out to their Lord for help. 

They then turned on their leader, Moses, as the scapegoat for their problem, saying:

Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

They even begin saying that they did not want to leave Egypt at all and were ready to keep working for the Egyptians. They cried:

…it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

It was typical of people who judge a situation only by what they can see immediately in front of them. It was also one of the first of many examples of their lack of trust in God and in his chosen messenger, Moses.

Moses then reassured them:

Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.

The Egyptians who are pursuing them now will soon never be seen by them again, because:

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.

The Lord himself now intervenes and asks why the people are crying out to him. Do they not trust him and his promises?  He then gives his instructions. First, the Israelites are to continue going forward in the direction of the sea. Second, Moses is to raise his staff over the sea and divide it in two so that the Israelites can walk through it on dry land. Third, God will make the Pharaoh and the Egyptians so obstinate that they will go in pursuit. 

In today’s passage, we are not yet told exactly what is going to happen to the Egyptians, but that God will receive glory through what happens to Pharaoh, his army and all his chariots. The result will be that the Egyptians will now realise that Yahweh is Lord.

The lesson all through is that God is with his people, protecting and leading them. Even when they seem to be in deep trouble, he is there. They sometimes can see no light at the end of the tunnel, but the light is there and it is God.

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