Friday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 9:18-22

After the incident concerning Herod, which as we saw is a pointer to things yet to happen, the disciples return from their mission. What follows is omitted from our readings. In fact, Jesus took them to a quiet place where they could rest and reflect on what they had been doing. However, they were pursued by the ever-hungry crowds and Jesus fed them with the Word of God, with his healing and finally, through his disciples (“You give them something to eat”) with bread and fish. The story is another step in the Twelve’s involvement in the mission of Jesus, and it leads into today’s reading.

In this reading, we find Jesus praying alone. As we have already seen, it is something that Luke mentions a number of times about Jesus, especially before significant events in his public life. Some people might wonder what Jesus would have to pray about. Such a question may reveal a rather limited idea of prayer, e.g. as something you do when you want to get something from God or when you are depressed or in trouble of some kind.

But prayer is ultimately getting in touch with God and that is something that Jesus would surely want to do quite a lot. Prayer is also a way of discovering just where God’s will enters one’s life, and that is something that was always of supreme importance to Jesus because:

The Father and I are one. (John 10:30)

Jesus, we are told, was not altogether alone. His disciples were with him. Were they praying too? Later, they will ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

All of this is Luke’s introduction to a high point in all the Synoptics: the revelation of Jesus’ true identity. From the other Synoptics we know that it took place at Caesarea Philippi, a mixed Jewish-Gentile region outside Herod’s territory.

Jesus asks them:

Who do the crowds say that I am?

They give various answers: John the Baptist (resurrected) or Elijah, expected to return to announce the imminent coming of the Messiah, or some other of the earlier great prophets.

But then he asks:

But who do you say that I am?

Peter, answering for all of them, replies simply:

The Messiah of God.

Some translations of the Bible use the Greek word Christos, Christ. ‘Christ’ is not a name, but a title meaning ‘annointed one’. It is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. The anointing refers to someone who is king and, in this case, the One who is anointed the Saviour King of Israel.

In short, Peter is saying that the man standing before him is the long-awaited Saviour of the Jewish people. It is a dramatic development in Jesus’ relationship with his disciples.

Jesus’ next words at first sight seem unexpected and contradictory. He strictly orders his disciples not to say anything of this to anyone. Surely they should be doing the exact opposite? But the people are not yet ready for this revelation. They have a very limited and preconceived idea of what the coming of the Messiah will mean. They see him in very political terms as a kind of national liberator who will drive out and destroy the Romans and all enemies of the Jewish people, and restore the past glories of Israel.

Even after the Resurrection, Luke has Jesus’ own disciples asking him:

Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)

Their ideas, even at this late date, are no different from the ordinary people’s. At this point in the Gospel, they must be secretly proud that they, of all people, are the first to be privileged with this information.

If that was the case, they were very quickly to be disillusioned. Almost immediately Jesus goes on to say that:

The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

This is the first time in Luke that Jesus refers to himself as “the Son of Man”. It occurs eighty-one times in the four Gospels and is only used by Jesus of himself. In the book of Daniel (7:13-14) we see the ‘Son of Man’ pictured as a heavenly figure who is entrusted by God with authority, glory and sovereign power. Jesus’ use of the title in a Messianic sense is made clear by its close proximity to Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Christ or Messiah.

We know from Matthew and Mark that the disciples—in particular Peter—were dumbfounded when they heard Jesus’ words and wanted to reject them entirely. It was totally against all their expectations of the Messiah, apart from the fact that they could not bear to have those things happen to their Master.

To them, it simply did not make any sense. First, Jesus as Messiah was going to be rejected and handed over by the leaders of their own people. Second, he was going to go through a terrible and humiliating death. His being “raised” on the third day—whatever that meant—did little to alleviate their confusion.

But as Mark indicates, this was a further step in their relationship with Jesus. They now recognised him as the Messiah, but next they had to learn just what kind of Messiah he was going to be, and how he was going to liberate not only his own people, but people all over the world.

We, too, of course, have to keep going through the same process. We, too, have to deepen our understanding of the true identity of Jesus. We have to be able to understand how the suffering and dying Messiah is not only the way he needed to go to reconcile us with God, but that we too have to be ready to go the same way. We have to learn to see the redemptive and healing power in the pains, sufferings, disappointments and failures of our lives.

Read more

Friday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Haggai 1:15—2:9

In today’s reading, we have another exhortation from the prophet to the returned exiles in Jerusalem. It is a message from God through the mouth of the prophet and directed especially to Zerubbabel, the governor of the city, and Joshua, the high priest. It begins:

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai…

It is more than a year after the first prophecy—October 17, 520 BC (which we read about yesterday) and the last day of the feast of Tabernacles. It was on this feast that Solomon had dedicated the original Temple (1 Kings 8:1-2). It was also a time to celebrate the summer harvest, though for the returned exiles the crops have been meagre (a sign of God’s displeasure at the people’s reluctance to get to work on the rebuilding of the Temple).

In speaking to Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and the Remnant of Israel, Haggai is to ask them:

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?

It was possible that some of the older exiles, even including Haggai himself, had actually seen Solomon’s magnificent Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians some 66 years earlier. In any case, others would have heard parents or elders talk nostalgically about its glories. Haggai had asked if any of them had seen “this house” (i.e. the Temple) in its former glory. He was referring to the new building which was seen as a continuation of Solomon’s Temple. And what did they see in the new building? Almost nothing. That is because after the foundations had been laid, no further work had been done

But now Yahweh, through his prophet, urges Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the returned exiles to have courage and get to work on completing the Temple building because Yahweh is with them. David had given his son Solomon similar words of encouragement in the building of his Temple. Haggai is to tell them:

…take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.

The same God who helped Solomon build his Temple will empower Zerubbabel and the people. Similarly, the Spirit of God had rested on Moses and the 70 elders as they led the people out of Egypt and through the desert.

Then comes a prophecy proper:

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land…

For Haggai, God is the sole master of history. While the prophet is foretelling the disaster which is to introduce the new era, the world is temporarily at peace under the rule of Darius. The imminent worldwide catastrophe and the rebuilding of the Temple will herald the messianic age. From the later period of Ezekiel’s preaching onward, the Temple became, as here, a dominant messianic theme.

The prophet’s words are an announcement of the coming of God’s judgement on the nations—which the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great (333-330 BC) will foreshadow. The Letter to the Hebrews (12:26-27) links this verse to the judgment of the nations at the second coming of Christ. The background for the shaking of the nations here and in subsequent verses is the judgment on Egypt at the Red Sea:

I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade.
(Hag 2:21-22)

The prophet continues with the word of Yahweh:

I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with splendor…The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.

“Splendor” can refer to material splendor, or to the glory and presence of God. The latter connects the glory of the Lord with the cloud that filled the sanctuary. When Christ came to the earthly Temple, God’s presence was evident as never before. When Jesus was brought to the Temple for the first time as an infant to be presented to his Father, he was met by the holy man Simeon who spoke of the Child as:

…a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:32)

Haggai’s speaking of the future filling of the Temple with glory points ultimately to Christ who will enter it several times during his life—each time making a significant statement about himself and his mission for his Father. Ultimately, though, as he dies on the Cross, the glory will leave the Temple, the veil of the Holy of Holies will be thrown open to reveal an emptiness. From now on, God has a special presence in his new Temple, the Body of his Risen Son.

“The Lord of hosts” says:

The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former…in this place I will give prosperity…

The Temple now has become a focal point of messianic hope, a hope realised in Jesus. It is in this same second Temple of Zerubbabel, though restorations had been made by King Herod, that Jesus will teach. And that is why this temple will enjoy greater glory than Solomon’s Temple because the longed-for Messiah would be present there.

In our own Catholic faith, we have magnificent churches, some of them among the greatest artistic achievements of the human race. And yet, when it comes to glory, they are no whit greater than the straw-roofed hut in some mission station. For the glory comes not from the building, but from the Presence in the tabernacle and from the community, which as the Body of Christ celebrates its Eucharist there. The church building is holy because God’s people make it so and not the other way round. It is only as holy as they are.

Read more