Friday of Week 33 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Revelation 10:8-11
We skip a number of chapters in coming to today’s reading. The intervening chapters had discussed the gradual opening of the seven seals on the scroll and the sounding of six of seven trumpets.
Today’s reading is a digression from the main theme. John has been offered a small scroll by an angel of God. This scroll represents a revelation from God. He is told:
Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.
When he does so, he is told to “take it and eat”. He is warned that:
…it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.
The scene is very reminiscent of an almost identical passage in the prophet Ezekiel where the prophet is told to eat a scroll and then share what he has received with others. It also reminds us, of course, of the instructions of Jesus to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
In all three cases the meaning is the same. They are instructions to absorb and assimilate completely the word of God or, in the case of the Gospel, the words and teaching of Jesus, who is, of course, the Word of God, and make them our own. They then become part of our very being.
The contents are both sweet and sour. The message in itself, at a first taste, is sweet in its promise of life, but it is sour in so far it will also entail a degree of pain and suffering for the Church and its members in living out the message. And that is the experience that John has as he “eats” the scroll.
Now, armed with the revelation that the scroll contains, John is told to “prophesy again”, that is, to proclaim the message of God’s plan which he has received from God. These prophecies are recorded in Revelation after the sounding of the seventh trumpet (which begins at verse 11:15, but will not be included in our readings).
In a very similar way, we are called on to “eat” the Gospel and the whole of the Scriptures. This is part of the real meaning of our “eating and drinking” in the Eucharist. It is not just a physical or devotional act. It is a community statement of our deepest desire to see and love Christ in every person and in every experience of our day.
Unfortunately, ‘eating the Scriptures’—the Word of God, is for many Catholics a very small part of their daily diet. Some are quite illiterate when it comes to the Word of God. It is a sad situation where, among Christians generally, Catholics are probably some of the greatest offenders.
And yet, we cannot really call ourselves disciples until we have entered on what is a lifelong task—deepening our understanding of God’s Word and assimilating its vision into our very being. A knowledge of our school catechism will not fill this void.
We need, as Paul tells us, to have the “mind of Christ”, that is, to see life just as he sees it. We need to be able to say, as he could:
…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)
Friday of Week 33 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 19:45-48
Luke tells us very briefly of the scene where Jesus, now in Jerusalem, drives the traders from the courts of the Temple. Says Jesus quoting from Isaiah (56:7) and Jeremiah (7:11), respectively:
My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
The trading took place in the outer court, also known as the Court of the Gentiles, and, as is not unusual in such situations, prices could be grossly inflated. John speaks of a cleansing at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (2:13-25), but in the other three Gospels it takes place at the end. Two possible explanations have been given. Either there were two cleansings or, more likely, John moved the story to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry for theological reasons. He wanted to show Jesus as Messiah right from the beginning. However, in the Synoptics, Jesus’ identity as Messiah is only gradually revealed. There are also some differences in the various accounts. John mentions cattle and sheep and has Jesus use a whip made of cords. Matthew (21:12-17) and Luke seem to indicate that the event took place on what we call Palm Sunday, but for Mark it was on the following day (see Mark 11:15-17).
Those coming to the Temple needed to buy animals for the sacrifices and they needed to change their Roman coins into acceptable Jewish currency (shekels) to make their contributions to the Temple. Jesus had no problem about that. What he objected to was that this business was being carried on inside God’s house when it could just as well have been done outside.
We all know how street traders try to get as close to the action as they can. However, there may be hints that priests in the Temple connived at this business and hence would certainly have profited from it as well. But Jesus (and probably others as well) felt that such business was not appropriate in a place dedicated to the worship of God.
It would be hard for us to imagine hawkers being allowed to set up stalls inside our churches, although where Sunday papers are still sold, the vendors still do try to get pretty close to the church doors.
Not surprisingly, the chief priests and the scribes—especially those who might have been involved in what must have been a lucrative business—were plotting how to get rid of Jesus who was upstaging their authority and accusing them of hypocrisy, greed and corruption. The chief priests, as members of the ruling Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, wielded great authority. But it was not going to be easy, as the ordinary people continued to flock to Jesus and, as Luke tells us:
…all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Jesus is an example of the true prophet. He speaks as a messenger of God and is indeed God’s own Son. He stands as a counter-witness to all that is against truth, love and justice. As such, he inevitably incurs the anger and hostility of those who have power, power based on falsehood, on self-interest, corruption and injustice.
Our Church, in its communities and through individuals, is called on to continue that mission of counter-witness. It will win us the support and admiration of some, but also hostility, anger and perhaps even the violence of others. This is something we should not at all be surprised at, nor something we should try to avoid. Our only concern must be always to speak the truth in love. God will take care of the rest. Because, ultimately, truth, love and justice will prevail.
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