Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors – Readings

Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13; Matthew 23:8-12

In the Gospel, which is from Matthew, Jesus calls on his followers to avoid all honorary titles.  Every member of the community, irrespective of their role, has only one Master and all are brothers and sisters to each other.   All are called to serve each other, to seek the well-being of every other member through agape-love.  And, in any community, those are greatest who provide the most effective service.  Both Basil and Gregory were bishops, but at heart they remained true to their original callings as monks and hermits.  Their lives were lived not to rule or dominate but to heal the divisions among their communities.

The First Reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians, emphasises first, the unity which must bind the community.  A unity which comes from being members of one Body, with one Faith, one Lord, one God, one hope and one Baptism.

The Church in the time of Basil and Gregory was seriously divided by the Arian heresy and it was through their efforts that unity was restored.   Unity, however, does not mean uniformity; we are not clones of each other.  And so, as the Reading says, real unity only happens when people with different characteristics and callings, different responsibilities work together towards one goal—the establishment of God’s Kingdom. For us, their lives, committed to unity and service, are highly relevant for us today.

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Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor- Readings

Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13; Mark 4:1-10,13-20

The Gospel reading is the Parable of the Sower as told by Mark. We are told that Jesus began teaching beside the shore of the Lake of Galilee. So many people came to listen to him that he had to get into one of his disciple’s boats and preach from there. He sat down (the position of a teacher) while the people were on the shore. There is, of course, a symbolism in the boat which here, and in other parts of Mark, clearly represents the church. Even now we sometimes speak about the Church as the ‘Barque of Peter’.

Jesus then proceeds to tell a parable about a farmer who goes out to sow seed in his field. It is a typical and not very fertile Palestinian field. We need to realise also that in those days the farmer would scatter the seed all over the field and only then plough the field. That explains the situation as the parable unfolds. Some of the seed falls on a path which is probably a ‘short cut’ going across the field. Here the seed has no hope of taking root and is promptly picked up by birds. Some of the seed falls on crevices in some rocks. There may be little pools of water in crannies so the seed begins to take root. But then the sun comes up, it dries up the water and the new plants wither away. Some of the seed falls on briars and weeds on the unploughed field. It takes root, but in time it is choked by the brambles and does not produce any grain. Lastly, some seed falls on fertile ground and produces fruit with various yields.

In every parable there is just one message. Here it is that God’s Word (the seed) is directed to every person without exception and, although it many cases it seems to fail, it will definitely succeed in producing the desired fruit.

The second part of the reading is a response to the disciples’ not getting the point of Jesus’ parable. In the explanation it appears now to more like an allegory. In a parable there is just one image, while in an allegory, each element is a symbol of something. So whereas in the parable the emphasis is just on the seed; in the explanation it is rather on the different kinds of soil in which the seed falls.

So the seed falling on stony ground is like those who hear the Word, but immediately the Evil One moves in and snatches it away. It does not even get started. The seed that falls on rocky ground is like those who hear the Word with great enthusiasm, but as soon as they face any difficulty, fall away. This must often have been the situation in the early Church when enthusiastic new converts dropped off at the first sign of persecution.

The seed that falls among the brambles is like those who accept the Word with joy, but very soon the temptations of the material world, ambition and the desire for money take over and stifle the Word. Most probably, there are very few of us who do not fall to some degree in this group.

Finally, the seed falls on rich, fertile soil where it is totally and unconditionally accepted. Then it produces fruit in abundance and is a source for the planting of seed elsewhere.

The First Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians describes the various charisms or vocations that we, individually, are gifted by the Holy Spirit. John Chrysostom (Chrysostom means “golden mouthed”) was a famous preacher of the Word. And while many hung on his every word, there were many who did not want to listen to him, especially those—both clerics and lay people—who did not like his condemnations of their materialistic and corrupt ways of living. He was twice driven into exile by fellow clerics and died in exile.

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Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist – Readings

Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13; Matthew 9:9-13

The Gospel reading tells Matthew’s version of Jesus calling a tax-collector to be a disciple. Tax collectors have a very poor reputation in the Gospel. They are numbered among the groups of outcasts with whom no decent person would have any contact. In Palestine, most of them would have been Jews, employed by the Roman colonial power to collect taxes from their own people. Roman citizens did not have to pay taxes; only the conquered peoples had to do this.

So tax collectors were seen both as renegades and traitors, and also as people who were in gross violation of their Jewish faith in working for Gentiles in this way. Even Jesus, when speaking of members of the Christian community who refuse to change their sinful ways in spite of every effort made to help them reform, said:

…let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. (Matt 18:17)

The Jewish tax collector was put on the same level as a Gentile, a person with whom no self-respecting Jew would have any relationship.

And here, in today’s reading, we see Jesus inviting such a person to be his disciple! This tells us a number of things about Jesus. It means that he does not look at stereotypes. He does not say, “He is a tax collector, so he must be a very sinful person with whom I should have no contact.” No, he looks at the person and sees the potential there. And in Matthew he sees the potential for him to be one of his followers, and indeed one of his Apostles, on whom the continuation of Jesus’ mission will depend. For Jesus, our past is not very important. What counts is where we are now and where we can be in the future.

After Jesus says to Matthew, “Follow me”, the tax collector gets up and goes after Jesus, leaving all the paraphernalia of his occupation behind him. It is very similar to Peter, Andrew, James and John leaving their boats, their nets and even their family to go with Jesus. It is an unconditional and total following.

Matthew then decides to celebrate his new calling. He invites Jesus and his disciples and also the only friends he has—other sinners and tax collectors. They all sit down together in ‘his’ house. Whose house? It could be the house where Jesus is staying, a house mentioned a number of times in the Gospels and which is a symbol of the Christian community, the place where Jesus gathers with his disciples.

Here, tax collectors and sinners are invited into the house to eat together with Jesus and his followers. This does not indicate that Jesus does not care about their behaviour, but rather that they are being brought under his influence; they are the ‘lost sheep’ being brought back to the Shepherd.

Or it could refer to Matthew’s house. In that case, we see Jesus and his disciples unhesitatingly going into the house of a sinner and accepting his hospitality. Of course, the Pharisees are scandalized:

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

As devout followers of the Law, they would never have contact with such people. How can Jesus as a rabbi behave like this?

Jesus answers them very bluntly:

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Matthew and his friends are people in need of healing. Jesus is there to give it to them. And Jesus quotes from the prophet Hosea:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice. (Hosea 6:6)

Jesus and his true followers are measured by their compassion and care of those in real need. They are not measured by their observation of ritual laws.

In fact, says Jesus, he has come with a special interest in the sinner. Genuinely good people do not really need the services of Jesus. They are the sheep who stay with the flock and close to the Shepherd. Jesus is interested in the stray sheep. This reading has many lessons for us living our Christian life today.

The First Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians is a prayer for unity in a Church where there are many different responsibilities. The Church is the Body of the Risen Christ and, like any body, is a unified organism in which each of its parts has a role to play in contributing to the whole. The source of this unity is that:

…there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…

But unity is not uniformity. Unity is when different elements merge together in perfect harmony. So Paul goes on to say that there are different callings and responsibilities in the community. And he mentions a few of them—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. But there are many others. The purpose of these ministries is to equip the members of the community for the work of service and for building up the Body of Christ. It is a beautiful picture of a Christian community—all deeply united in faith and love, and yet each one serving the community with a different responsibility.

We remember Matthew, of course, as an Apostle and also an Evangelist. It was through these charisms that he contributed to the building up of the Church as the Body of the Risen Christ.

Let each one of us recognise the charism in us by which we can serve and build up the Christian community. Let us work together for greater unity while celebrating our diversity so that God’s Word can find fertile root in as many of God’s children as possible.

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Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr – Readings

Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13; John 17:20-26

The reading from John’s Gospel is from Jesus’ long discourse at the Last Supper. The last section of this discourse consists of a long prayer which Jesus makes: first, on the completion of his own work; second, a prayer for his disciples; and third, a prayer for all believers.

It is this third part of the prayer which forms our reading today. It is above all a prayer for unity among all Jesus’ followers. Even when John’s Gospel was written, divisions had already appeared.

So Jesus prays:

I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their [i.e. his immediate disciples] word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…

And why does Jesus so especially emphasise this unity?

…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

And he continues, speaking to his Father:

The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

How, then, can people be expected to accept the message of Jesus, when those who claim to be his followers are so deeply divided among themselves, even to the point of violence? This was the sad situation in Josaphat’s world. It was later the tragic situation in the Reformation, an ongoing process of splintering that has hardly stopped in our own day. It is scandal even today in many parts of the world.

Earlier, at the Last Supper, Jesus had told his disciples:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

He loved them to the point of giving his life for them. And he added that the sign by which outsiders would recognise his followers would be the love they had for each other. How can there be love without union, or union without love? It was this universal and unconditional love that Josaphat gave his life to uphold. It is as necessary today as it was then.

The First Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians speaks in a slightly different way of the conditions for true unity in the Church and among Christians. First there are the elements which bind us together. To begin with we need to live a life that truly reflects the gospel (especially today’s):

…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…

Then there is the presence of the Spirit and the binding force of true peace. Under the Spirit:

…there is one body…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

These are the elements we must have in common. They give us our unique identity.

At the same time, there is room for a great deal of variety, as each one is called in a different way to serve and build up the community:

…some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…

In this way, we grow together:

…until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Let us continue to work for greater unity among all Christians—first, in our own Church and then with members of other churches. The witness of the gospel depends on it.

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