Thursday of Week 20 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Ezekiel 36:23-28

Today’s reading describes an oracle on the mountains of Israel, a promise that in the end, all will be well. Through his prophet, God expresses his desire that the holiness of his name become evident among all the peoples of the world. It has been profaned by the unbelieving nations, but Israel has also profaned it in their presence. They have been very poor witnesses to the holiness of Yahweh.

But now “the nations shall know that I am the Lord”. This is the ultimate purpose of God’s plans and it is his will that, through Israel, the whole world may come to know and acknowledge the true God. We, too, pray for this every time we say in the Lord’s Prayer:

Holy be your name; your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as in heaven…

For this to happen, God’s people must be taken from their exile among foreign nations and be brought back to their own land. Here the prophet is speaking of the return of the exiles to Jerusalem.

But God will not stop at simply restoring their homeland. There will also be a spiritual renewal. Yahweh will sprinkle clean water on them to remove all their corruption and purify them from all idolatry.

Further, they will be given a new heart and a new spirit. Their heart of stone will be replaced with a heart of warm, beating flesh. ‘Flesh’ in the Old Testament often is a symbol for weakness, and in the New Testament it often represents our sinful nature as a force in opposition to the truly spiritual. Here, however, it is contrasted with stone to indicate a warm-blooded, feeling and teachable heart.

The phrase, “I will put my spirit within you” (i.e. the Spirit of God), is explained by the Jerusalem Bible as follows:

The spirit (breath) of God, which creates and gives life, lays hold on men to endow them with superhuman power. The characteristic of the messianic age is to be an extraordinary outpouring of the spirit on all, endowing them with special graces. But more mysteriously, for each receiver the spirit will be the principle of an inward renewal making possible a faithful observance of the laws of God; thus the spirit will be the principle inspiring the new covenant; like life-giving water it will nourish fruits of integrity and holiness, which in turn will guarantee the favour and protection of God for man. This effusion of the spirit will be effected through the Messiah who will be the first recipient of it, to be able to accomplish his saving work. (edited)

The active and effective presence of this new spirit will be manifested by the people’s response, by their observance of God’s law and their carrying out of his will in all things. Then the covenant promise will once again be realised:

…you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

This, too, is the ultimate goal of the Church as an instrument of the Kingdom, namely, that the holiness of God’s name be acknowledged by peoples everywhere. For that, we in the Church constantly need a new heart, a heart of flesh, and a new spirit. We need this both corporately and individually.

Let us pray that the community of which we are members, and each member of it, may experience a constant renewal of heart and spirit. Only then can we be effective instruments to proclaim the Good News to all those who thirst for meaning and a vision in their lives.

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Thursday of Week 20 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 22:1-14

In our readings we have jumped from chapter 20 to chapter 22 and read another Kingdom Parable, not unrelated to yesterday’s, about the workers in the vineyard.

Yesterday it was a question of resentment at God’s generosity to latecomers in his Kingdom. Today it is rather sadness over the Jewish leaders’ refusal to accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord. The parable is a kind of potted history and is more like an allegory than a parable.

The king (God) gives a wedding banquet (the happiness of the Messianic age) for his son (Jesus the Messiah). But when he invites people (the Jews) to attend, they refuse to come and make all kinds of excuses. Others actually attack the king’s servants and messengers (the prophets and the early Christian evangelisers).

The king became angry and:

…sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

This is surely a reference to the Roman army under the emperor Titus which sacked and destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. The Temple, the heart of Judaism, was also destroyed and plundered and has never since been rebuilt. Today an Islamic mosque stands on the site.

Because the invited guests will not come, the servants (the Jewish disciples of Jesus) are instructed to go out and bring in anyone they can find:

Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

All are called—both the good and the sinful.

The climax of the story at first seems somewhat unfair. People have been pulled in from highways and byways, and now one is condemned for not wearing a wedding garment! But the parable has in fact moved to the final judgement. In fact, Matthew may be combining what were originally two original parables into one.

The wedding garment clearly stands for faith and baptism combined with a lived-out commitment to the gospel, something necessary to be accepted into the eternal happiness of the Kingdom.

As Jesus says at the end:

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Many were called and invited to attend the banquet, but more than that was expected of them. They had to answer the call by saying an unqualified ‘Yes’ to Jesus. Being baptised and having the label ‘Christian’ or ‘Catholic’ is not enough. We have also to live out in our lives and relationships what we claim to believe in.

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