19th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

 19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: 1 Kings 19:9, 11‑13  Romans 9:1‑5  Matthew 14:22‑33

            This Sunday's readings present two men, Elijah and Peter, who find themselves in danger because of their efforts to follow God's will.  In fear, both reach out for God's saving help.  Let us pray with them in the words of the responsorial psalm: "Lord, let us see your kindness,/ and grant us your salvation" (Ps 85).

            In the reading from 1 Kings, Elijah is fleeing from the wicked queen Jezebel who has put him under a death sentence for defeating and slaughtering her prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (see 1 Kings 18:1‑19:3).  Filled with despair at his apparent failure, Elijah escapes into the desert, where he is ready to die like his forefathers who came out of Egypt and wandered for forty years. He goes to sleep under a broom tree, as he prays for death: "This is enough, O Lord!  Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."  But God has a life giving mission for the prophet.  Just as the Lord provided his ancestors water and manna in the wilderness (Exodus 15‑17), he sustains Elijah with a hearth cake and jug of water so that he can journey forty days and nights to  the mountain of God.  There, like the frightened Moses before him, Elijah encounters the Lord, but the Lord is not present in the spectacular and powerful manifestations traditionally associated with the mountain.  Rather, Elijah hears God’s message in a "tiny whispering sound" that tells him he is not alone in his struggle and he must return to his people and continue his prophetic mission (1 Kgs 19:13‑18).     

            For the next three weeks in the second reading from Romans Paul will be struggling with the question of the place of his people, the Jews, in God's plan for salvation.   Paul is saddened and perplexed by the fact that his brethren, the Jews, did not as a whole embrace Jesus as the Messiah.   Using the language of a solemn oath, Paul begins by expressing his grief and pain over his people's apparent separation from the Messiah.

                                    I speak the truth in Christ: I do not lie.  My

                                    conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that

                                    there is great grief and constant pain in my heart.

                                    Indeed, I could even wish to be separated from Christ

                                    for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen the Israelites.

Paul goes on to praise God in a blessing for all the privileges that the Jewish people have in the plan for salvation.

                                    Theirs were the adoption, the glory, the covenants,

                                    the lawgiving, the worship, and the promises;

                                    theirs were the patriarchs, and from them came the

                                    Messiah (I speak of his human origins).  Blessed

                                    forever be God who is over all!  Amen. 

Later Paul will come to the conclusion that, despite the present failure of the Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah, their place in God's plan is irrevocable.  They are and remain the chosen people (Rom 11:28‑29).

            Matthew's story of Peter's attempt to walk toward Jesus on the waters of the stormy Sea of Galilee captures the challenge of a Christian trying to be faithful to Jesus in a terrifying situation in which one is not sure of his presence.  Matthew stresses that Jesus has sent the disciples out alone into the night storm.  After feeding the crowd of five thousand with loaves and fishes, Jesus insists "that his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side."  In the meantime, he goes "up on the mountain by himself to pray, remaining there alone as evening drew on."   During the night, the disciples find themselves several hundred yards out from shore "being tossed about in the waves raised by strong head winds."   When Jesus comes walking toward them on the lake at about three in the morning, they are so terrified that they assume he is a ghost.   Jesus attempts to reassure them with the words: “Get hold of yourselves!  It is I.  Do not be afraid!”  Peter is not sure that this apparition is Jesus, but he is willing to propose a bold test:  “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you across the water.”  At once Jesus commands him: “Come.”  And, in obedience, Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water toward Jesus.  But, as he feels the power of the wind, Peter becomes frightened and begins to sink.  In desperate faith, he cries out, “Lord, save me!”  Jesus at once stretches out his hand and catches Peter, but then chides him, “How little faith you have! . . . Why did you falter?”  When our lukewarm faith begins to falter in times of danger, let us make Peter's desperate, but faith filled, prayer our own: “Lord, save me!”

The Transfiguration (August 6)

 The Transfiguration (August 6) 

Readings: Daniel 7:9‑10,13‑14  2 Peter 1:16‑19 Matthew 17:1-9

            In the midst of the liturgical year the feast of the Transfiguration is a reminder of the exalted nature of Jesus as God's beloved Son and of our own future as glorious children of God.  Let us affirm Jesus' hidden dominion over the cosmos in the words of this Sunday's psalm: "The Lord is King, the most high over all the earth" (Ps 97).

            In the first reading Daniel's vision is meant to console the faithful Jews who were being persecuted for their faith by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (c. 175‑163 B.C.E.).  In the first part of Daniel's vision, four terrifying beasts, symbolizing the nations who have oppressed the Jewish people for almost five hundred years, emerge out of the chaotic sea and appear to dominate the world.  But then Daniel witnesses in a vision the future triumph of God's kingdom over the powers of violence and evil.  He sees the heavenly throne room of "the Ancient One" and watches the destruction of the fourth beast and the removal of the dominion of the other beasts.  This is followed by another vision in which  a human figure, "one like a son of man," ascends "with the clouds of heaven" into the heavenly court and receives from the Ancient  One "dominion, glory, and kingship" which "shall not be destroyed."

            The interpretation of the vision follows in 7:15ff.  An anxious Daniel asks a figure in the heavenly court (the interpreting angel of apocalyptic visions) to explain the vision to him.  He learns that the four beasts are four kingdoms who will arise out of the earth and that the son of man represents “the saints of the Most High” who will receive the kingdom and possess it forever.  For us, as Christians, Jesus, who faithfully carries out his Father's will, is the ultimate fulfillment of this vision. 

            2 Peter is written as a "testament" in the name of the head of the apostles to defend two important features of apostolic preaching:  Jesus' promise to come again as judge and the need for his followers to live morally upright lives.  It seems that certain "false teachers" were denying both of these doctrines.  In our selection, the author refutes the accusation that the apostles' preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ's second coming in power (parousia) was based on "cleverly concocted myths."  2 Peter insists that Jesus' return in judgment is based on a divine revelation.  First, the author appeals to the fact that Peter was an eye‑witness of the transfiguration.  In this event Jesus was proclaimed by God the Father as the unique divine Son: “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests.”  Secondly, the author appeals to "the prophetic message" which is "reliable" because it comes directly from God.  If Christians will keep their attention closely fixed on Jesus' divine sonship and his second coming, they will have "a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in (their) hearts."

            In Matthew's account of the transfiguration God reveals Jesus as his final word, the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets.  The event occurs on a high mountain, a place of revelation for Matthew (Matthew 5‑7; 28:16‑20; see Exodus 19‑40).   The radiance of Jesus' face and garments is reminiscent of Moses' transfiguration on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34) and indicates that now Jesus manifests the divine presence.  At the sudden appearance of Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus, Peter proposes to build three booths honoring them equally.  With that a bright cloud overshadows them and commands: "This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests.  Listen to him."  As at the baptism scene (Matt 3:17), God's heavenly voice reveals Jesus as the fullness of revelation in completion of the Law and the prophets.  Now, when the disciples hear the divine voice, they prostrate on the ground in fear.  But the scene ends with tender reassurance.  Jesus comes forward and lays his hand on them with a healing gesture (8:3,15;  9:25,29) and commands: "Get up!  Do not be afraid."   Having been given a reassuring preview of Jesus' glorious destiny, they resume their journey with Jesus to his death in Jerusalem.  As they descend the mountain, Jesus commands them: "Do not tell anyone of the vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead."   The only path to that glory is through the suffering and death which Jesus must endure.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

 17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: 1 Kings 3:5,7‑12  Romans 8:28‑30  Matthew 13:44‑52

            By our very nature we search for the secret of wisdom.  In today's readings God offers us the simple answer to that quest: the gift of the wisdom is to do God's will.  Let us make our own the prayer of the responsorial psalm.      

                                    For I love your command 

                                    more than gold, however fine. 

                                    For in all your precepts I go forward; 

                                    every false way I hate.  (Ps119:127‑128) 

            In the reading from 1 Kings young Solomon has just succeeded his father, David, as king of Israel, and God appears to him "in a dream at night," offering him the opportunity to have anything he may want.  “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”   Rather than requesting the crass material rewards of a long life, riches, or military victory, Solomon has the insight to pray humbly for God's gift of wisdom to rule and judge the chosen people.

"O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant,

                                    king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.  I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.  Give your       servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.  For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"

The Lord is pleased with Solomon's selfless request and promises him the gift of wisdom for which he became renowned.

                        "I give you a heart so wise and understanding that

                        there has never been anyone like you up to now,

                        and after you there will come no one to equal you."

            The second reading continues Paul's lyrical description of the basis for Christian hope in the midst of our lives of "groaning" for the completion of God's kingdom.  Our hope has its foundation in God's providential plan of salvation by bringing those who love him "to share in the image of his Son."   Just as we share in the image of Adam, the selfish and mortal one, so God has called us to be conformed to his Son, the selfless and resurrected one.  Paul uses a series of five overlapping verbs to describe what God has accomplished for us in his providential plan for salvation through his Son.  In Christ, God "foreknew," "predestined," "called," "justified," and "glorified" us.  Paul's language of "election" and "preordaining" should not be understood in the sense that God decrees salvation for some individuals and damnation for others.  Rather, Paul is applying the biblical tradition of election to the Christian community of his time that is made up of both Jews and Gentiles.  This inclusive community is the result of God's plan for salvation for the whole human family.

The Gospel reading continues Matthew's parable chapter with three parables addressed to the disciples about the nature of God's kingdom.  The first two, the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price, proclaim that the kingdom is the most valuable of all realities and that it calls for a single‑minded response.  In the case of the buried treasure in the field, the stress is on the surprise of what is found, not on the man's morality.  “Out of his joy” at stumbling on this treasure, the man hides it again, sells all he has and buys the field.  The joyful discovery that we are called to do God's will is such an experience.  In the pearl of great price, the discovery is the result of a diligent search: the merchant is “seeking” for fine pearls.  But his response is the same as in the first parable.   When he finds “one really valuable pearl,” he too is glad to “put up for sale all that he had” in order to buy it.                       

            The dragnet parable is like the parable of the wheat and weeds from last week's readings.  Although we are responsible for the way we personally respond to the gift of the kingdom, we are not charged with the sorting out “the worthwhile” and “useless” fish in the kingdom.  God has reserved that task for the angels at the end time.  

            Jesus concludes the parable discourse by asking his disciples, “Have you understood all this?”  When they reply, “Yes,” he reminds them of their task and ours: to be scribes, learned in the reign of God, who can bring forth from their  “store(s)” the wisdom of Jesus' “new” teaching as well as “the  old” of the Jewish Torah. 

16th Sunday of the Year A

 16^th Sunday of the Year A

Readings: Wisdom 12:13,16‑19  Romans 8:26‑27  Matthew 13:24‑43

            "Lord, you are good and forgiving."  The refrain from this Sunday's responsorial psalm (Ps 86) captures the theme of today's readings.  As we listen to the proclamation of the Lord's mercy, let us hear it as both an invitation to repentance and a call to show mercy ourselves. 

            The first reading from Wisdom is a hymn praising and thanking God for his mercy.  Although God is mighty and just, the author of Wisdom is especially overwhelmed by God's clemency.      

But though you are master of might,

                        you judge with clemency, 

                        and with much lenience you govern us; 

                        for power, whenever you will attends you.

The lessons of God's mercy are twofold: (1) God's people must mingle justice with kindness and (2) always have hope for repentance.     

And you taught your people, by these deeds,

                        that those who are just must be kind;

                        and you gave your sons good ground for hope

                        that you would permit repentance for their sins.

            The second reading continues chapter 8 of Paul's letter to the Romans with an explanation of how the Spirit helps Christians pray while groaning inwardly in "weakness" as they await the completion of God's kingdom begun in Jesus.  Paul understands the Christian community as the first fruits of the harvest of God's kingdom.  Through Jesus' triumphant death and resurrection, we Christians have been given the gift of God's renewing Spirit which "makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be expressed in speech."  Although we may not even know how to articulate the deepest needs of our hearts, "He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills."

            The Gospel reading continues Matthew's great parable chapter from last Sunday's readings with three more parables: the weeds and the wheat, the mustard seed, and the yeast.  In order to understand the significance of these parables, it is helpful to recall what has preceded this chapter in Matthew.  In chapters 11‑12 Jesus has clearly presented himself to the crowds and leaders as the Messiah, the very Wisdom of God, and has invited them to respond.  Sadly, they have rejected Jesus' claims and have accused him of being possessed by Beelzebul.  Now Jesus speaks to his opponents in "parables" which "announce what has lain hidden since the creation of the world," but they do not understand them because their minds and hearts are closed to Jesus' message. 

            Despite this depressing and potentially violent situation, Jesus' parables are filled with hope.  Both the mustard seed and the yeast parables contrast the small, even insignificant, beginnings of "the reign of God" with its triumphant growth and outcome.  The mustard seed “is the smallest seed of all, yet when full‑grown it is the largest of plants.”  The image of the birds of the sky building their nests in its branches connotes a traditional image of the triumph of God's kingdom (see Ezek 17:23; 31:6; Dan 4:7‑9,17‑19).  Likewise a little yeast is infinitesimally small in comparison with “three measures of flour,” yet when a woman kneads it into the dough, “the whole mass of dough began to rise.”

            Although the weeds and wheat parable also ends with the  hopeful image of a harvest in which the wheat is gathered into the barn, it makes another point for those who would like to  immediately eliminate all opposition to the kingdom.   This attitude is perfectly expressed in the speech of the owner's slaves who ask their master, “Do you what us to go out and pull them (the weeds) up?”  The patience of the master in the parable is the same as that of Jesus in his ministry. Rather than responding violently to those who have rejected him, Jesus exercises patience in the hope that they may change.  He also extends this lesson to his disciples who might be tempted to hasten the reign of God by sorting out the good and the bad.  The master answers his slaves:      

"No, pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat

                        along with them.  Let them grow together until harvest;

                        then at harvest time I will order the harvesters,

                        first collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn

                        then gather the wheat into my barn."

In Jesus' allegorical interpretation of the parable we learn that the judgment will take place at the end of time and it will be the work of the Son of Man and his angels.  This frees us, Jesus' followers, from the task of sorting out who are the saints and who are the evil ones.  That will be the Son of Man's job at the end; we are free to be about the more productive work of extending the kingdom by proclaiming God's mercy and inviting people to repentance.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

 15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: Isaiah 55:10‑11  Romans 8:18‑23  Matthew 13:1‑23

            "The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest."  As the response to the psalm proclaims, this Sunday's readings are both promise and challenge.  We are assured of the fulfillment of God's word in a fruitful harvest, but we are also questioned about whether we have been receptive ground for that life‑giving word.

            The Isaiah reading is part of a hymn of joy and triumph which concludes Second Isaiah's prophecy announcing the good news of Israel's return from Babylonian exile.  Despite the apparent  hopelessness of the exiles' situation in Babylon, the prophet  assures them that God's word has decreed their return and will bear fruit as inevitably as "the rain and snow" do not return to  the heavens "till they have watered the earth,/ and made it  fertile and fruitful. . .".  Just as in nature "the one who sows" and "the one who eats" are dependent upon the rain from heaven, so Israel must learn to trust that God's word will accomplish his saving purpose.

                                    It (my word) shall not return to me void, 

                                    but shall do my will, 

                                    achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isa 55:11)        

            The Romans reading continues Paul's lyrical description of the saving effects of Jesus' death and resurrection for both the Christian community and the whole of creation.  Using the Jewish apocalyptic tradition that a period of great suffering and turmoil would precede the completion of God's kingdom, Paul assures his fellow Christians: "I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us."  Because of Adam's sin (Genesis 3), "Creation was made subject to futility," but "not without hope."  It "will be freed from its slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God."  In the present order, however, "creation groans and is in agony even until now."  We Christians also "groan inwardly while we await the redemption of our bodies."  But this common fate of "groaning" is not without hope.   Through Christ’s death and resurrection, "We have the Spirit as the first fruits" of the harvest of God's kingdom. 

            Matthew's parable of the sower also affirms the triumph of God's kingdom despite opposition from both outside and within the Christian community.  Matthew draws a sharp contrast between the crowds who refuse to accept the mystery of God's kingdom (see the preceding chapters 11‑12) and Jesus' disciples who are open to it.  After Jesus has spoken the parable, his disciples ask him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"  He answers that the reason the kingdom of God is hidden from his opponents is their own hardness of heart—“seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”  In them the terrifying prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled.  In contrast, the disciples are the “blessed” who are witnessing and hearing what “many prophets and righteous longed to see.”

            Jesus' allegorical interpretation of the parable warns the disciples, and us, of the various ways they and we too may reject the kingdom, but ends with an assurance of its eventual triumph.  Some disciples, like the seed along the path, “hear the message about God's reign without understanding it.”   Like the birds eating the seed along the path, “the evil one” steals away “what was sown in the mind.”  Others, like the seed upon the rock, hear the message with joy for a while, but because they have no root, last only for a time and falter in times of persecution.  Still others, like the seed choked by briars, allow worldly anxiety and the lure of money to choke off the seed.   Despite these failures, God's word does find good soil: those “who hear the message and take it in.” Let us pray that we may be that receptive soil.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: Zechariah 9:9‑10  Romans 8:9,11‑13  Matthew 11:25‑30

            Our culture tends to seek security through military might and mental cleverness, but today's readings invite us to follow the gentle and humble Jesus who offers himself as the very Wisdom of God.  In gratitude for Jesus' "easy" yoke of wisdom let us sing the refrain of this Sunday's responsorial psalm: "I will praise your name forever, my king and my God" (Ps 145).

            The first reading is from an oracle in the Book of Zechariah which speaks in apocalyptic fashion of God's coming as a powerful warrior to establish a kingdom of peace for Zion/Jerusalem (ch. 9). In the midst of the vision "daughter Zion" is invited to rejoice in the coming of the Messianic king.  In contrast to the expectations for a warrior Messiah (see Ps 2) who might come on a horse, the mount in time of war, the Book of Zechariah envisions the Messiah coming upon an ass, the ordinary mount in peace time, as a humble king of peace and a just savior who will banish the implements of war.

                        See, your king shall come to you;

                        a just savior is he,

                        meek, and riding on an ass,

                        on a colt, the foal of an ass . . .

                        He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,

                        and the horse from Jerusalem.

                        The warrior's bow shall be banished,

                        and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.

When Jesus, at the end of his ministry, enters Jerusalem riding an ass, Matthew will note that Jesus acts in fulfillment of this passage (Matt 21:1‑11).

In the second reading Paul is speaking to the Roman Christians about the liberating effects on them of Jesus' death and resurrection.  Formerly, they had been in the "flesh," given over to their lower instincts which lead only to sin and death.   But now, because of Christ's victory over sin and death, they are "in the spirit," and their mortal bodies are also destined for resurrection.

                        If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead

                        dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the

                        dead will bring your mortal bodies to life also

                        through his Spirit dwelling in you.

In light of Christ’s victory, Paul exhorts the Roman Christians to affirm the life‑giving power of God's Spirit which dwells in them and to put to death the evil deeds of the body.

                        We are debtors, then, brethren‑‑ but not to the flesh,

                        so that we should live according to the flesh.

                        If you live according to the flesh, you will die;

                        but if by the spirit you put to death the evil deeds

                        of the body, you will live.

            The Gospel reading from Matthew is made up of two parts:  Jesus' prayer of thanksgiving to the Father and his invitation to those "who are weary and find life burdensome" to come to him and find rest.  Both parts are closely tied to the immediate context in the gospel and to Matthew's theology.

            In the prayer Jesus contrasts “the learned and the clever” with “the merest children.”  “The learned and clever” are the  religious leaders who in the next chapter will accuse Jesus of  being possessed by Beelzebul when he allows his hungry disciples  to pluck grain on Sabbath and when he heals a man with a withered  hand on the Sabbath (Matt 12:1‑32).  Their stringent legalism keeps them from receiving Jesus as the gentle servant who brings the very Wisdom and revelation of God. 

            “The merest children” are the needy (lepers, possessed,  paralytics, the blind, the deaf and mute, tax collectors, sinners, and Jesus' rag‑tag disciples) who have found in his healing ministry and teaching the very revelation and Wisdom of  God (chs. 8‑11).  To them Jesus, like Lady Wisdom in Proverbs and Sirach, offers the further invitation to take upon themselves the gentle yoke of God's wisdom which he himself exemplifies in his teaching (chs. 5‑7) and his actions (chs. 8‑11). 

                        Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

                        and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you

                        and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of  heart;

                        and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke

                        is easy, and my burden light.