Tuesday of Week 24 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 7:11-17
This story is only found in Luke’s Gospel. It is one of only three stories in the Gospel where Jesus is described as bringing a dead person to life. The most dramatic is the story of Lazarus told in John’s Gospel. There is the also the story of the synagogue leader’s daughter (Luke 6:40-56; Mark 5:21-43; Matt 9:18-26), although it is not categorically certain that she had actually died. She might have been in a coma or catatonic state.
In the thinking of the time, today’s scene is particularly sad. A woman, who has already lost her husband, has now lost her only son—her only means of support. She is on the way to bury him.
The lot of the widow in those days—often a relatively young woman—was particularly difficult in a society where the married woman was no longer the responsibility of her own family, and who, after the death of husband and children, was no longer the responsibility of her husband’s family either. She was largely left to her own devices in a society where social welfare of any kind was unknown.
Jesus himself is deeply moved at her plight. At this point, for the first time, Luke refers to Jesus as “Lord”, a title reserved for God himself. He approaches the litter (not a coffin as we know it) carrying the dead man and touches it, causing the bearers to stop. He then says:
Young man, I say to you, rise!
As in other similar stories, the word used for “rise” is the same as that used when describing the resurrection of Jesus, for he:
…came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
The reaction of the people around is one of awe and admiration:
Fear seized all of them, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”
They had no doubts about the origin of what they had seen taking place; it was the work of God. Not surprisingly, the story spread like wildfire all through Judea and beyond. The episode prepares the way for Jesus’ response to the disciples of John the Baptist a little later (not included in our Mass readings during this time).
This story should help us to look at our own situation and see, first of all, how alive we really are. Let us look around and see how many people need to be lifted up and helped to find new life. Maybe we can do something for them.
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Tuesday of Week 24 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31
In today’s reading, Paul moves on to another issue in the Corinthian community—the question of ‘spiritual gifts’ or ‘charisms’ (Greek, charismata). Here too there were disputes among community members.
The gifts under discussion were granted to certain members of the community and were the signs by which the Spirit helped the community to function. We need to remember that the organisation of the communities at this stage was not very developed. The later hierarchical ministries we know now were still in the process of evolution. This led to a certain amount of confusion in the community, and was the cause of some of the factional disagreements which were occurring. Some of the gifts were even disruptive, being rather eccentric in form. Clearly, there had to be a discernment between which gifts were beneficial and which were not.
In this part of his letter Paul makes five points:
- All the gifts come from the Spirit, who is working in the community;
- All the gifts, though given to individuals, are for the good of the whole community;
- The importance of each gift is to be measured by its benefit to the community;
- The gift of ‘prophecy’ is far more important than being able to ‘speak in tongues’, a gift about which the Corinthians apparently thought very highly.
- Love (agape) transcends and is present in all the genuine gifts and is in a class by itself. This is dealt with in the famous ‘Hymn to Love’ (1 Cor 13:1-13) which we will be reading tomorrow.
To illustrate what he wants to say, Paul uses the analogy of the human body. Although it is made of many different parts, each with its own functions, it is basically a single coordinated unit. So it is with Christ, says Paul. By ‘Christ’ here he means the Risen Christ, which includes his new Body, the Church and each local church community. For Paul, Christians are bodily united with the Risen Body through their Baptism and the common celebration of the Eucharist. The community becomes, in effect, the Risen Body of Christ—of which he is the Head. Hence, the importance of its unity and mutual complementarity is obvious.
The source of unity is the Spirit of Christ in which all, both Jews and Greeks, citizens and slaves, were baptised and given that Spirit. In the community, there can be no ethnic or social discrimination where the giving of the Spirit is concerned:
…we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Paul now emphasises that a body is not to be identified with any one of its parts. This is what was happening in the Corinthian community, where groups were giving excessive importance to the charism of one or other of their leaders, or to the gifts which some individuals were experiencing.
Continuing his analogy, he tells them that they, in their community, are the Body of Christ, but like a body, each one has a different role to play. He singles out three particular charisms as being of prime importance.
First of all, come the Apostles. They are those who were specially and personally chosen by Jesus during his time among us to carry on his work of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. They were also to be witnesses of the resurrection. They are the founder members, the ‘pillars’ of the Church and the unique bearers of the tradition which Jesus handed on.
Next to them in importance come the prophets. The special role of the prophet is not to foretell the future. The prophet was any person through whom God wishes to communicate a message to a particular community. It might be an encouragement; it might be a warning. The prophet, unlike the apostle, is a ‘non-institutional’ figure and can appear at any time. Clearly, careful discernment is needed to distinguish the true from the false prophets. Because the message they give may be unpleasant to hear or may challenge the status quo, prophets may not be welcome and may even face efforts made to get rid of them. At the same time, we ignore the message of the true prophet at our peril, and at all times we need prophets to wake us out of our complacency.
Thirdly, there are the teachers, those whose gift was to form the community and to hand on the content and meaning of the tradition received from Jesus. Again, they make an indispensable contribution to the life and growth of the community.
After these come charisms of less crucial importance, although they can greatly enrich the life of the community.
Some members had the gift of performing miracles, namely, actions which could not be explained by natural means. Their main function was to reveal the power of God working in the community and to be spurs to a deeper faith (as such, it does not really matter that at a later age, there might be a natural explanation for what happened).
The gift of healing was given to some, and again was the means by which the Lord brought wholeness back into people’s lives.
‘Helpers’ are those who make charitable contributions or support the community in some other way; ‘leaders’ are those who do the administrative work and provide guidance on a practical level.
Lastly, there are those who “speak in tongues”. It is not clear whether this means an actual ability to speak in different languages and dialects (quite useful in cosmopolitan Corinth) or whether it refers to making ecstatic utterances, i.e. the ‘gift of tongues’, under the impulse of the Spirit (and which needed interpretation by those gifted to understand their meaning).
These gifts are all spread among the community and not given to all, or even to many. Not all can claim to be apostles, or prophets, or miracle-doers, or healers. That would result in a very lop-sided body. So, the gifts are many, but the community is one.
It is also important to realise that this list is not meant to be exhaustive. There are hundreds of possible charisms, and surely every single member in the community has a gift by which a positive contribution can be made to the life of the community. Everyone, in however small a way, can and should make a difference by their presence.
And, if we are to desire any gifts, let us seek those which are of greater benefit to the community, and not just those which are more spectacular (like speaking in tongues) or seem to give higher status in the eyes of others. However, in conclusion, Paul says that behind all these gifts lies something much more important; it is “a still more excellent way”. We will see what that is tomorrow.
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