Tuesday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 8:19-21

The mother and brothers of Jesus come looking for him, but they cannot get to him because of the crush of people in the house where he is speaking. Jesus was in Capernaum at the time and Nazareth was about 50 km (30 miles) away. The mention of ‘brothers’ would commonly indicate cousins and not just siblings. When the message is passed in to Jesus, he says to all:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

The story is told in harsher terms in Mark. He has Jesus say, for instance:

Who are my mother and my brothers? (Mark 3:33)

It is suggested there that their purpose was to take him away. On the one hand, they thought he was mad and an embarrassment to the family and, on the other hand, that he might get them into trouble with the authorities because of the provocative things he was saying and doing such as questioning traditional interpretations of the Law. We see a similar embarrassment on the part of the parents of the man born blind in John’s Gospel. They refuse to speak to the authorities about their son:

Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. (John 9:21)

Luke’s account is softer and just focuses on the saying of Jesus. In fact, Luke has taken this passage out of its context in Mark (3:31-35) and turns it into a conclusion to his short section on the parables. In doing so, he modifies Mark’s statement:

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. (Mark 3:35)

This is done to match the end of Luke’s parable of the sower:

But as for that [i.e. the seed which fell] in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with endurance. (Luke 8:15)

Luke has Jesus say:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21)

To a society which regarded itself as God’s chosen people merely by birth and an external ritual like circumcision, Jesus asserts that belonging to God has little to do with blood or race, but only with the relationship one establishes with God.

There is a lot of meaning in the words of the message:

Your mother and your brothers are standing outside…

It was clear from their behaviour that they were not, like the seed falling on fertile soil, ‘hearing’ him and so they were outsiders. Those who really ‘hear’, no matter who they are or where they come from, are ‘insiders’ and belong to the family of Jesus.

Of course, we know from elsewhere, especially in Luke’s Gospel, that Mary is not being condemned here. In fact, this is where her greatness really lies. Clearly it partly lies in her being chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. But perhaps it lies even more in her saying ‘Yes’ (“…let it be with me according to your word”), in her unswerving faithfulness to that ‘Yes’ and in her standing by her Son to the very end when all the rest had fled.

When, on another occasion, she was indirectly praised for being the mother of such a Son, Jesus had spoken in words very similar to today:

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28)

Our discipleship, too, is not determined by our being born into a Catholic family or just by being baptised or by observing the external requirements of our religion, but by our total commitment to the gospel and to an unconditional following of Jesus. Only then can we truly be said to be his brother or sister.

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Tuesday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Proverbs 21:1-6,10-13

We have today a set of two-line moral aphorisms which are quite distinct from each other and with which we are not likely to quarrel. However, whether they reflect the way we always behave is another question, so we do need to read or listen to each statement carefully.

Today the writer tells us that everything is ultimately in God’s hands. The heart of the greatest king is just like flowing water in the hands of the Lord. He can direct it where he pleases. Great kings like Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and Cyrus of Persia might have seemed all-powerful when compared to Israel, but before God they were impotent. They were merely instruments in his hands. Whether we are dealing with the great suffering that Nebuchadnezzar brought on Israel, or the liberations from the Babylonians which came with Cyrus—in either case, for all their apparent power, they were only doing God’s work.

It is not enough for a person’s external behaviour to seem good. God will see and judge the inner intentions of the heart. In the true follower of Christ there is no difference between his outward behaviour and his inward intentions. As Paul writes to the Corinthians:

I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Cor 4:4)

And in the Letter to the Hebrews we read:

Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:12)

To act virtuously and in a spirit of true justice towards others pleases God more than any sacrifice.

This is a theme which goes right through the Old Testament, but is put with particular force in the prophets. Says the prophet Hosea, for example:

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hos 6:6)

And from Micah:

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil? (Mic 6:7)

And there are powerful words from Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.” (Jer 7:21-23)

The Gospels will continue to emphasise this. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matt 5:23-24)

For us it means that regular attendance in church and at Mass by itself is not enough unless it is accompanied by a daily life that gives real witness in word and action to the loving demands of the gospel. Arrogance and pride, which result in trampling on the dignity and rights of others, can only be seen as belonging to sin. The ‘hardworking’ man reflects on the value of what he does and is a gainer in the long run. The one who rushes to gain wealth and material success for himself ends up the loser.

Similarly, to make a fortune through lying and deceit is tantamount to seeking death rather than life. As our society becomes more prosperous and people have more, paradoxically the level of dishonesty also grows at all levels of society. Even some who have more than they could possibly spend will commit massive fraud to get even more.  We may not be in that league, but we might profitably ask: How honest are we in the use of our material resources?

The mocker ends up being punished by his own arrogance and the dead end he chose to follow. The formerly ignorant can learn from this. The wise person, however, is always ready to learn more from those who can teach him.

Finally, a very serious warning for all of us: if we close our ears to the cry of the poor and the needy, we cannot expect to have our own cries for help responded to either. Again, as our society grows richer, there are still many—far too many—who are shut off from sharing in that prosperity. Ironically, growing prosperity for some all too often exists with growing poverty for others.

In Luke’s Gospel we remember the parable of the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus, whom he totally neglected (Luke 16:19-31). And we know of the unmerciful servant who had a huge debt forgiven by his master, but then had a fellow-servant thrown into jail for not paying back a paltry amount (Matt 18:23-35). And we pray the words:

Forgive us our sins, AS we forgive those who sin against us.

How much of what we have gained over the years has been shared with those who have not gained or even lost? The fact that what they have lost may have been largely through their own mistakes does not lessen their need for help. The term ‘deserving poor’ cannot be found anywhere in the Gospels. As has been said, “God loves the poor, not because they are good, but because they are poor.” Each of these sayings can stand by itself, but together they build up a picture of the kind of person each one of us is called to be.

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