17th Sunday 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 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 want 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 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 "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.   "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 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.”

13th Sunday A

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: 2 Kings 4:8‑11,14‑16a    Romans 6:3‑4,8‑11     Matthew 10:37‑42

            In this Sunday's Gospel Jesus identifies himself with his disciples whom he sends on mission.  They are called to heroic sacrifice but are assured that those who welcome them also welcome Jesus and the Father who sent him.  Later in Matthew, we learn that those who welcome Jesus' lowly disciples will be invited into the Father's kingdom (see Matt 25:31‑46).

            The story of Elisha's visit to the Shunanmite woman in 2 Kings is paired with the gospel reading.  Both emphasize hospitality to God's messengers and God's gracious reward for such kindness.  This story is very similar to the tale of Abraham and Sarah's hospitality to their three mysterious visitors (Genesis 18).  Not only does the woman urge the prophet “to dine with her,” but she also provides “a little room on the roof” furnished “with a bed, table, chair, and lamp” for whenever he visits.  The reward for such gracious hospitality to a "holy man of God" is the same as in the Abraham‑Sarah story: the barren old couple will be given a child by God.  Elisha promises the woman: “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” 

            The second reading is taken from Romans 6 in which Paul, in a diatribe fashion, raises and answers a possible objection to the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ.  The objection is: does Paul's gospel encourage converts to continue in sin "that grace may abound" (Rom 6:1)? Paul's answer is a definitive "No!"  He substantiates this by a reflection on the effects of the baptism which Christian converts received.  Paul explains Christian baptism as an entrance into the death and resurrection of Christ which leads to walking in a newness of life (6:1‑4).   Christian baptism involves an ethical conversion: a "death" with Christ to enslavement to sin and a "resurrection" into a life in which Christians "have become slaves of righteousness" (6:18).

            The Gospel reading is the conclusion of Matthew's second  great discourse in which Jesus sends his twelve apostles on mission “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10).   This section reflects two of the characteristics of Matthew's Christology.  First, Jesus‑‑ as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and the Son of Man‑‑ is bringing about the war and division expected in the Messianic Age.  His apostles will also experience the sufferings predicted for that age (see 10:16‑25).  In the midst of persecution, however, they are assured of the Father's loving protection (10:26‑33).  But radical choices are demanded of them; they must choose between family loyalties and fidelity to Jesus' message.  They must be willing to take up the cross and lose their lives in order to find them.  Second, the disciples represent Jesus and the Father who sent him (10:40‑42; see 18:5; 28:16‑20).  This principle is similar to a rabbinical tradition that "the representative of a person is like himself" (m. Ber  5:5).  Just as those who welcome prophets and holy men receive  their rewards (see the first reading from 2 Kings 4), so those  who welcome Jesus' disciples, even with something as ordinary as  "a cup of cold water," will not want for a reward.     

            Another important feature of this text is the way Jesus describes his disciples.  He refers to as "one of these little ones" (hena ton mikron).  Children and "little ones" is a favorite Matthean designation for the disciples (see 18:1‑9; 19:13‑15; 25:31‑46).  In fact, in Matthew's famous last judgment  scene, the nations are judged and rewarded with entrance into the Father's kingdom on the basis of the way they have treated Jesus'  brethren: "the least ones" who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, ill and imprisoned (see Matt 25:31‑46).  For Matthew, the authentic disciple is the one who becomes "least" in following the master even to the cross.

12th Sunday A

12^th Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Readings: Jeremiah 20:10‑13  Romans 5:12‑15  

Matthew 10:26‑33

            This Sunday's readings challenge us to acknowledge our commitment to Christ and the gospel, even in face of insult, betrayal, and persecution.  When we are near despair over the apparent failure of the gospel, let us have the faith to pray the words of the responsorial psalm: "Lord, in your great love, answer me" (Ps 69).

            The first reading is one of Jeremiah's laments in which he cries out to God for justice against his enemies who have denounced and persecuted him because of the horror of his message.  Jeremiah has just been imprisoned, beaten, and put in stocks for announcing that the city of Jerusalem is going to be destroyed for its crimes against God and neighbor.  His message to all has been "Terror on every side!"      

            In this lament we are taken into Jeremiah's own heart where he struggles with the unpopularity, isolation, and vulnerability that his mission has brought him.   He hears “the whisperings of many” who denounce him for his message and watch for any misstep on his part.  In his agony Jeremiah's only consolation is his faith in the Lord as a mighty champion who will rise up to vindicate him against his persecutors: “But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:/ my persecutors will stumble; they will not triumph.”  By the end of the lament, Jeremiah is already praising the Lord for rescuing him.  “Sing to the Lord,/ praise the Lord,/ For he has rescued the life of the  poor/ from the power of the wicked!”

            In the Romans reading Paul continues to proclaim that the death and resurrection of Jesus has brought salvation for all humanity.  He uses a typological contrast between Adam, the type for sinful humanity, and Christ, the antitype for redeemed humanity.  Just as the disobedient act of the one man, Adam,  unleashed the demonic forces of Sin and Death into the world and brought condemnation in that all fell into sin, so the  obedient act of Christ, the new man, has brought the gifts of  righteousness and grace.  Paul's emphasis is on the confidence Christians should have in the gracious gift of God. “But the gift is not like the offense. For if by the offense of the one man all died, much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound for all.”

            The Gospel selection is linked to the Jeremiah reading by the theme of the persecution of God’s prophets.  It continues Matthew's missionary discourse in which Jesus is sending his disciples out to proclaim the arrival of the kingdom and to heal the sick.  In this section, Jesus has just warned them that they will be hated and persecuted for the sake of the gospel, just as he has been.  In the face of that hatred, they are not to be intimidated because the truth of the gospel will be triumphantly revealed. “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not become known.  What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light. What you hear in private, proclaim from the housetops.”

            The disciples are also not to be afraid to acknowledge Jesus before the world because its threats can only deprive the body of life but cannot destroy the soul which is protected by the Father's loving care.  To assure his disciples of the Father's providential love Jesus uses a parable drawn from nature. “Are not two sparrows sold for next to nothing? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted; so do not be afraid of anything. You are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows.”

With this assurance we should have the courage to acknowledge Christ's kingdom before the world.  Jesus warns us that our judgment before the Father will be based on this.  “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven.”  

The Body And Blood of Christ A

Corpus Christi: Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ A

Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2‑3,14‑16  1 Corinthians 10:16‑17  John  6:51‑58 

    

The readings for the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ present three aspects of the mystery of the Eucharist: (1) as a remembrance of the Lord's past care for his people, (2) as a union with Christ and one another, and  (3) as an anticipation of our eternal life through Christ in God.   In gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist, let us sing the refrain of the responsorial psalm: "Praise the Lord, Jerusalem" (Ps 147).

 In order to understand Moses' words to the Israelites in the reading from Deuteronomy, we need to remember the genre and setting of the book.  Deuteronomy is composed as Moses' farewell to the people after their journey of forty years from Sinai to the plains of Moab, just across the Jordan from the promised land of Canaan.  Moses is about to die; he will not be able to enter the land with the people, and so in his farewell he prepares them for the dangers they will face in the land of milk and honey.

    In this section Moses reminds the Israelites that the Lord is about to bring them into “a good country . . . a land where (they) can eat bread without stint and where (they) will lack nothing .  . .”  (Deut 8:7‑9).  The danger of this prosperity will be that they may forget the Lord who has sustained them for the difficult forty years of wandering in the desert with the gift of “manna, a food unknown to (them) and (their) fathers.”  Each will be tempted to think that “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has obtained for me this wealth” (Deut 8:17).  The antidote to forgetfulness is remembrance of the lessons of the wilderness, especially the manna which was given “in order to show . . . that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word (of command) that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.”  

           In the second reading Paul is warning the Corinthians that they are not free to participate in the banquets honoring pagan deities, even though they may know that these idols are nothing.  Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that in their Eucharistic banquets "the cup of blessing" they drink is "a sharing in the blood of Christ" and the bread they break is "a sharing in the body of Christ."  Through this sharing in Christ's covenant of sacrificial love they are united to one another.  "Because the loaf of bread is one, we, many though we are, are one body for we all partake of the one loaf."  Paul then goes on to warn the Corinthians that those who partake in the pagan banquets are united to "demons" (see Deut 32:17). "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons.  You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons" (1 Cor 10:21).

          The Gospel reading is part of John's bread of life discourse given by Jesus after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes (John 6).  One of John's themes in this discourse is a contrast between the manna that God sent down to the Jewish ancestors in the desert (John 6:30‑33,51‑58) and Jesus who proclaims “I am the living bread come down from heaven.”  The difference between the manna and Jesus is that between temporary and lasting sustenance.  “Unlike your ancestors who ate and died nonetheless, the one who feeds on this bread shall live  forever” (John 6:58). 

          In John's theology Jesus who gives his “flesh for the life of the world” is the only link to the Father.  All of the images of Jesus in John express this same basic idea.  He is “the Lamb of  God who takes away the sins of the world” (1:29), the living  temple (2:19‑21), the Son sent to be lifted up for the world's salvation (3:14‑17), the living water (4:14), the light of the world (8:12), the “sheep gate” and “the good shepherd” (10:7,14),  the “resurrection and the life” (11:25), “the way and the truth  and the life” (14:6), and “the true vine” (15:1).  The particular focus of the image of Jesus as “the living bread” is that the Eucharistic sharing in Jesus' life‑giving death brings a unity with Jesus and the Father which stretches into all eternity. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feed on me will have life because of me.”