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Commentary on Deuteronomy 7:6-11; 1 John 4:7-16; Matthew 11:25-30

There exists a hillside in Los Altos, California where retired priests and brothers from the Jesuit order go to reside when they have reached the age of retirement. They rest in this building that bears the name “Sacred Heart Jesuit Center”. The name is appropriate. Its residents have made choices about their path in life—decisions that involved passion or suffering—and the commitment to see it through. As they rest there and contemplate their life experiences, the symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus accompanies them. The readings for today’s feast offer an opportunity to reconsider what the ancients thought about when using images like the heart and emotions like love. For the seat of emotions and the seat of thought in the human person from biblical times differ slightly from modern ways of thinking about these things.

Love According to the Book of Deuteronomy
In today’s passage from Deuteronomy, Moses speaks as God’s mouthpiece to remind the people that they are set apart from the other nations. It is not that the Hebrew people were ‘special’, but rather the point made in this section is that they are chosen as an instrument and for a purpose.

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath.

The first part of these verses uses the phrase “set his heart” to capture the sense of the line. But in the original Hebrew, the word for heart was never used; instead the author used a verb that suggests choice, desire, and thought. In the next verse, the actual word ‘love’ was selected, which also conveys a decision and thought process suggesting to ‘join together’—to be attached or devoted to someone else. It is the action and process of choosing by the Lord that is emphasized. In the Hebrew language, words like love involve a committed decision, and not a romantic emotion. The ‘heart’, as a metaphorical space in human feelings and thinking, is the seat of thought and decisions, whereas the ‘bowels’ are the place or seat of emotions. Where modern westernized people point to the mind for thinking, the ancient Hebrews pointed to the heart.

Love According to the New Testament
‘Love’ is used frequently in New Testament literature. The Greek word agape describes a selfless affection unique to the Gospels and Letters of the New Testament. In today’s Second Reading, we discover a hymn to agape-love:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

When the author uses agape to describe a unique aspect of love’s many faces, it means to love someone more than one’s own life. This is why we attribute agape-type love to Jesus. We know that Jesus’ life was given away freely for the world since he loved us more than holding on to his own life. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus captures this reality. Can the ‘heart’ or love of Christ ever be exhausted? In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we find a helpful reminder to answer this question. Paul was thinking out loud when he wrote about his ministry to them:

I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? (2 Cor 12:15)

The answer is no; one cannot exhaust one’s love for another when the action is rooted in Christ. That is why we hold the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus so dearly within the iconography of the Church. Christ’s love is never a diminishment, but rather something that expands like the image of the mustard seed for faith; it keeps growing slowly and deliberately.

Love According to Matthew
Curiously, ministry, and especially the weight of obligations to one another, can seem exhaustive to many followers of various faith traditions. This is a reality from which today’s Gospel does not shy away:

I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Jesus allows us to enter into his intimate prayer between himself and the Father. In the verses above, Jesus personifies the voice of divine Wisdom itself, a characteristic from the Old Testament. In our first testament, from the Hebrew Scriptures, the law could be seen or described as a ‘yoke’. It was both necessary for life and flourishing, but also a burden. Only a fool would neglect the work and labor required to take up the yoke of the Law of Moses. In today’s verses, Matthew does not speak about love as in the First and Second readings. Instead, the Evangelist shares an image of the heart of God as one who shares the load with us. In Matthew, Jesus is called ‘God-with-us’, which we sing in Christmas carols calling upon Emanuel. But Jesus shows that love in deeds, rather than words. He walks with us and in the obligations that we owe to God and to our neighbor. This is a yoke made bearable because we share in the life of Christ.

All of this is tied to the mystery of today’s solemnity for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s like the fathers and brothers who rest at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Altos. They have labored and been burdened through a life of service. Held in the heart of Christ, may they at last discover true rest in their souls—souls now at peace at the end of their earthly abode.

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(Note: In liturgical Year A when Matthew’s Gospel about the feeding of the 5,000 [Matt 14:13-21] is read on Sunday, this Gospel is read on Monday, otherwise it is read on Tuesday of Week 18.)

Commentary on Matthew 14:22-36

As soon as the people had been filled with the food that Jesus gave them, Jesus packs his disciples off in the boat to the other side of the lake. He sends the crowds away and then retreats to the mountain to pray all by himself.

We know from John’s account that the people wanted to make him a king. If Jesus wanted to take control of the crowd, this was the moment; they were ready to follow enthusiastically. Jesus was indeed their King, but not the kind they were expecting. He would draw the crowds to him in a very different way, hanging in shame on a cross.

It looks too as if he did not want his disciples to get any wrong ideas either. They must have been elated at their role in the extraordinary event of feeding more than 5,000 people. So, perhaps with a lot of grumbling, they are sent off even before the excited crowds have dispersed.

As they make their way across the lake in this dark mood, things get even worse. They run into a big storm and their boat is being tossed about like a cork. Then out of the darkness, between 3 and 6 in the morning hours, they see Jesus approaching them across the water. Far from being delighted, they are terrified out of their wits. Superstitious men that they are, they think it is a ghost. Ghosts were very much a part of their world.

Words of encouragement come across the water:

Take heart, it is I [Greek, ego eimi = I AM]; do not be afraid.

Jesus gives himself the very name of Yahweh; this is all the reassurance they need. Their God is with them.

Only in Matthew’s account of this story do we have Peter’s reaction:

Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

To which, Jesus replies:

Come.

Peter gets out of the boat and goes towards Jesus. It is an act of love, faith and trust. But not quite enough. The power of the wind and waves gets stronger than his desire to be with Jesus. He begins to sink.

Lord, save me!

Jesus lifts him up and says:

You of little faith, why did you doubt?

As soon as Jesus and Peter get into the boat, there is a complete calm.

The rest of the disciples are overwhelmed and bow down before him saying:

Truly you are the Son of God.

We have here behind this story an image of the early Church, of which the boat and the disciples are a symbol. The surrounding water is the world, and the wind and waves are the forces which threaten the tiny community. Jesus seems to be far away, but he is not, and he appears in the midst of the storm. Once he steps inside the boat, there is calm, not only because the surrounding storm has stopped, but also because of the peace which the awareness of Jesus’ presence gives.

There is an added element in this story in that Peter, the leader of the community, comes hand in hand into the boat with Jesus. In time, the authority of Jesus will be passed over to him.

There is also, of course, in the calming of the storm an indication of Jesus’ real identity, expressed in the awe-filled words of the disciples, “Truly you are the Son of God”, echoing Jesus’ own statement of “I AM”.

There is a brief epilogue at the end of our passage. The boat reaches the area of Gennesaret. The name refers either to the narrow plain, about four miles long and less than two miles wide on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, north of Magdala, or a town in the plain. Significantly for the work that Jesus was about to do, the plain was considered a garden land, fertile and well-watered.

As soon as Jesus reaches the shore the crowds again gather in huge numbers especially to have their sick cured. So great was their faith that they asked only to touch the fringe of his garment. All those who did so (in faith) were healed.

Jesus had sent away the crowds earlier probably because of the late hour, but also perhaps because of the mood of the crowd which was taking on political overtones not wanted by Jesus. But now they are back to seek from him what he came to give them—healing and wholeness.

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Commentary on Genesis 3:9-15,20; John 19:25-34

The memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, was established as a new liturgical celebration by Pope Francis in 2018. This memorial takes place on the Monday after Pentecost, a feast that symbolizes the birth of the church through the action of the Holy Spirit. Mary, already recognized as giving birth to Christ our redeemer, is now recognized as part of the events that give birth to the church. Mary is Mother of God, but also Mother of the Church and their emphasis is not the same. The readings set for this feast day present two images of giving life: one involves trickery (Eve) and the other offers no deception concerning the risk involved (Mary).

Our first parents
The opening chapters of Genesis form a part of biblical literature referred to as ‘creation stories’ or ‘origin stories’, sometimes shared in part with the ancient cultures that surround the biblical narratives. Within this creation setting, however, a curious interrogation takes place in the garden of Eden between God and our first parents, Adam and Eve. The questioning in today’s first reading is reminiscent of the body of biblical writing known as ‘wisdom literature’. Biblical wisdom invites us to ask questions about the meaning of existence and getting along with others in society. It provides an opportunity, also, to pay attention to the answers, if any, that are provided.

In the First Reading, God comes back to bask in his own creation, except our first parents are nowhere to be found. Three questions are presented to the man and one directed to the woman, all of which follow after both had eaten of the tree:

• Where are you?
• Who told you that you were naked?
• Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
• What is this that you have done?

The last question to the woman is striking, but not more than her quick-witted response and its simplicity.

The serpent tricked me, and I ate.

Her response is more profound than a surface reading allows. She is somewhat challenging God with God’s own creation. What sort of plan is this anyway? What kind of experiment is taking place in this so-called paradise? The role of the serpent is to be the most cunning of all wild creatures and it is placed in the garden with our first parents by God’s hand. There is little surprise that the woman and man are tricked by the most cunning of all wild animals.

Nonetheless, the first humans are disobedient. They fall for the deception. A part of this creation story makes us contemplate the origin of deception (sin) and the difference between what it means to be a human person made in the image and likeness of God, and a wild creature like the serpent. It is not the same. The passage ends with a description of Eve as mother of all the living.

The Place of Mary
If one were to consider Mary’s theological place within the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, for example, you would be encouraged to contemplate Mary as the new Eve who crushes the serpent’s head. Mary, without sin, is able to aid the faithful in battle against the cunning forces of evil. Luke’s Gospel leads the reader in that direction:

Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. (Luke 1:28)

But today’s feast day places Mary in a unique role as symbol and mother of the church. The Gospel is not from Luke, but rather from the Gospel of John, with Mary and the other women at the foot of Jesus’ cross. This is an entirely distinctive image. What is consoling is to notice how involved are all these female figures in today’s readings. There is no passivity, but instead an active willingness to participate in the passion and cooperate with God’s plan of salvation. Mary, in today’s scene, is at the heart of salvation by standing with her son at the foot of the cross, a scene that only the Gospel of John introduces. What’s more, she takes on the role of mother to the beloved disciple and perhaps for all disciples after Jesus’ death:

He said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

If Eve becomes the mother of all the living, in spite of the trickery and deception involved in her fall along with her partner Adam, then Mary becomes the mother of all the Church, those living a new life marked by the death and resurrection of her Son. The birth of the Church, however, does not come about unscathed by the realities of chaos, evil, and suffering. Mary, though she is without sin in Christian tradition, faces all the suffering that humanity presents in every age. She goes to the cross and consoles all disciples afterwards who will have to confront places where sin and death impose themselves. Like the beloved disciple, we can take Mary into our own home and contemplate God’s plan of salvation, not as orphans, but as people with a mother in faith.

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Commentary on Amos 5:14-15,21-24

Today we have another appeal for people to act with a sense of justice. The passage begins with a rather generalised exhortation to “seek good and not evil”. To “seek good” is, of course, to seek the source of all Good, God himself and to stay away from everything that is contrary to his nature.

Then we can truly claim that “the Lord, the God of hosts” is with us. God, in a sense, is everywhere, in and through everything, but for him to be fully in me, my heart must be fully open for him to enter and for me to experience the power of his love. And if we do genuinely try to seek him, then he will truly be with us. But how that is to be done is yet to be spelt out by the prophet.

That spelling out begins when Amos says that to “hate evil and love good” means, among other things, to “establish justice in the gate”. In the cities of the time, local government functioned in the large open space inside the city’s gate. The implication is that justice does not always prevail. But only if the “remnant of Joseph” can behave consistently with justice will they experience the Lord’s compassion. The ‘remnant of Joseph’ refers to those from the tribe of Joseph who are still remaining in the Northern Kingdom after it has been depleted by successive punishments from Yahweh, through the instrumentation of various invaders. This is the first mention of the ‘remnant’ of Israel in the prophets.

There is an implication that a change even now would benefit the individual survivors of the disaster, though the nation as a whole was doomed to perish.

In the second half of the reading, to make sure that there is no misunderstanding about what seeking good and seeking God entails, “the Lord” (Yahweh), through the prophet, denounces the plethora of feasts and liturgical festivals scattered throughout the year.

It is an attack against identifying religion with mere rituals and liturgical practices. The prophets often attack religious hypocrisy—the conviction that all is well, provided external forms like sacrifice and fasting are observed—even when the most elementary principles of social justice and neighbourly love are neglected. The Psalms lay emphasis on the inner dispositions that must lie behind acceptable sacrifice: obedience, gratitude and contrition. As well, the Books of Chronicles, too, insist on the part played in sacrificial worship by the liturgical chant as an expression of inward sentiments; these authors also protest against a religion of mere form.

The Christian (New) Testament will formulate the distinction even more definitively. In attacking the Pharisees who laid great emphasis on external ritual and the cleanliness of vessels used even in ordinary eating, Jesus had said:

…you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness…So give as alms those things that are within and then everything will be clean for you. (Luke 11:39,41)

As well:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matt 7:21)

And Jesus, in speaking with the Samaritan woman, tells her that true worship is not in a particular place, but only in “spirit and truth.” (see John 4:21-24).

Amos puts it in even stronger language:

I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

These verses summarise and reject the current practice of religion in Israel. The institutions were not wrong in themselves; it was the worshippers and the way they worshipped that were wrong. The people had no basis on which to come to God, because their behaviour reflected disobedience of his law. What value then could be given to empty ritualistic practices?

Examples given are “grain offerings”, samples of the harvest offered in thanksgiving; “offerings of well-being of your fatted animals”, i.e. specially fattened cattle also offered as thanksgiving for good herds and flocks. Rejected as well were “the noise of your songs” and “the melody of your harps”accompanying the liturgical rites. On their own, these are of little value although there are many who believe that participation in these activities is equivalent to holiness and union with God.

But the only real holocaust the Lord wants is that:

…justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

These are the prerequisites for acceptance by God, but they are what Israel is rejecting. Justice is to flow like “an ever-flowing stream” in contrast to river beds that are dry much of the year. As plant and animal life flourishes where there is water, so human life flourishes where justice and righteousness are constantly practised.

On the one hand, it would be quite wrong to deduce from this reading that we go to the other extreme and to think that, provided we are engaged in acts of love and justice, we can dispense with all liturgical rites, that we can forget about our Sunday Eucharistic celebration.

On the other hand, there is a real danger that we can measure our service to God by our regular attendance at Mass, even daily Mass, and the regular saying of certain prayers or involvement in certain devotions and novenas. The thinking that he or she is a ‘very good Catholic’ will only be true if, first of all, there is a genuine participation in a community-centred liturgy, and second, if church attendance is part of a life totally dedicated to the living of the gospel—especially those parts of the gospel which call for personal involvement in serving the needs of those around us and, indeed, of people in other parts of the world too, who are in need of any kind.

The sacramental liturgy plays an absolutely central role in our Christian lives, but only when it is in close dialogue with lives based on love, justice and compassion. Each one reinforces the other.

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Commentary on Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3

As described in verses just prior to today’s First Reading, the results of the early persecution were to scatter the Jewish Christians to places like Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Phoenicia was a country about 15 miles wide and 120 miles long stretching along the northeastern Mediterranean coast (corresponding to modern Lebanon). Its important cities were Tyre and Sidon, which are mentioned in the Gospels.  The Phoenicians were legendary seafarers.

Cyprus is an island in the north-eastern Mediterranean and was the home of Barnabas the Apostle. Antioch, on the river Orontes, was the capital of the Roman province of Syria, and the third largest city of the empire after Rome and Alexandria. It was 25 km (15 miles) inland from the northeast corner of the Mediterranean.  The first mainly gentile local church was located here.  In many ways, it would become the headquarters for the mission to the Gentiles, and from here, Paul (in today’s reading still called “Saul”) would launch his three missionary journeys—more about them later.

Today we have the story of the Church’s being founded in Antioch in Syria.  Chronologically, it was an immediate sequel to the martyrdom of Stephen and the savage persecution which followed and scattered the Jerusalem Christians in many directions.  However, in between these readings, we have been looking at the work of the deacon Philip and Peter’s involvement with the Gentiles.  We also saw the conversion of Saul, which is presumed to have already taken place.

At first the refugees only evangelised their fellow-Jews.  But then Jewish Christians from places like Cyprus and Cyrene, on the north coast of Africa, who were used to more pluralistic societies, also began to approach “Hellenists”, i.e. Greeks who were not circumcised—in other words, non-Jews.  These people responded very well and many became disciples of the Lord Jesus.

They used the term “Lord” Jesus rather than “Christ”, which was a title more suited to Jewish audiences with messianic expectations.  With the non-Jews, Jesus was more usually called “Lord”.  He is “Lord” because, elevated to God’s right hand, he now rules over the Kingdom which he inaugurated:

The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord.

This showed God’s approval and blessing on their work, sometimes indicated by signs and wonders.  It was the beginning of the ‘church’ at Antioch, one of many ‘churches’ to be set up in the following years.

When all this came to the ears of the people in Jerusalem, who were still thinking primarily in terms of Christians only as Jews, they sent Barnabas to investigate.  Jerusalem, where the Apostles were centred, had a right of supervision over other churches.  And so, the sending of Barnabas was in keeping with Jerusalem’s policy of sending leaders to check on new ministries coming to their attention.  As a Hellenistic Jew from Cyprus, Barnabas was an obvious choice for this mission.

It is clear that Barnabas was very happy with what he found:

When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion…

He saw clearly that the gentile converts were very genuine, and encouraged the local church to continue what it was doing. About Barnabas, Luke comments in Acts:

…he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

These are similar words that had also been used to describe Stephen.

Then, Barnabas went off to Tarsus, a city in the province of Cilicia, in what is now the south-eastern corner of Turkey, and brought Saul back to Antioch. Saul had been forced to return to Tarsus after his conversion because the Christians would not believe in its genuineness.  They believed he was simply trying to infiltrate the Christian communities with the intention of destroying them. In Antioch, this resulted in even greater numbers joining the church community under the leadership and formation of Saul and Barnabas, who stayed on for a whole year in the city.

Once again we see innovation and new ground coming from the fringe rather than from the centre and how, after discernment, it is seen to be a valid development.  In our Church today, it is still the fringe which pioneers, while the role of Rome is to consolidate.

It is also an example of the phrase: “The world writes the agenda for the Church.”  It was the influence of a local situation which led to the new insights that were seen as a valid development of the Christian vision.

It was here, too, we are told that the “disciples”, that is, the followers of Jesus’ Way, were first given the nickname “Christians”. This also indicates that those who first coined the term took ‘Christ’ to be a personal name rather than a title.  It is not certain whether the followers adopted the name themselves, or whether it was used by enemies as a term of contempt.

In either case, it is a fitting title for those who attach themselves to Jesus and his Way, and we too should be proud of this nickname. It is not something we should hide, nor is it a name that we should dishonour by our behaviour—and still less wear lightly.

The reading then names the “prophets and teachers” in the Church at Antioch. It ends with the Holy Spirit’s coming upon them all “while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting” and saying:

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then they “were sent off”. Although Barnabas and Saul would later split up (over a disagreement as to whether John Mark should accompany them), these two proclaimed the Word of the Lord far and wide on their missionary journeys as the Apostles to the Gentiles.

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Commentary on Mark 12:35-37

In the face of the confrontations he has been experiencing Jesus now lays claim to his true identity. It had long been the belief among the Jews that the Messiah would be a descendant of the family of David. (On the other hand, the Samaritans saw the Messiah coming through the prophetic line; see John 4.)

Jesus, we know from the genealogies the Gospel gives us, was of the family of David. But today he affirms he is more than just a descendant of David. He is in fact David’s Lord. In the Gospel, Jesus quotes from Psalm 110, and we need to remember that David was believed to be the author of all the Psalms, themselves words inspired by the Holy Spirit.

In the Psalms, David says:

The Lord [God] says to my lord [the Messiah],
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Ps 110:1)

Jesus, then, is saying two things to his opponents:

1. Jesus, the descendant, is the Lord of his ancestor, King David, and he is the Messiah-King who will sit at the right hand of God. He is, then, also the Lord of those who are challenging him.
2. God promises that he will crush all the enemies of the Messiah-King.

The argument used in this reading could hardly be used today, as we have a better understanding of the authorship of the Psalms than people had in Jesus’ time.

Nevertheless, there are many other elements in the Christian Testament which lead us to the same conclusion: Jesus is Lord of all. We should ask ourselves: Does my life give testimony to that belief?

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Commentary on 2 Timothy 3:10-17

In today’s First Reading, Paul continues to urge Timothy to make Paul’s teaching and behaviour the model of Timothy’s own life.

Paul had very clear shortcomings, of which he was well aware, but he knew also that in his devotion to the following of Jesus, he was second to none.  In fact, it is because of his weaknesses that the power of Jesus shines so strongly through him:

…for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

And he was passionately bound by his love for Jesus, saying:

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)

So now Timothy is invited to remember Paul’s fidelity, patience and spirit of endurance as he passed through so many persecutions and sufferings. Paul mentions the three Galatian towns of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra.  Paul had visited them on his first and second missionary journeys, and as Timothy was from Lystra, he would have first-hand knowledge of Paul’s sufferings in that region.  Yet God had delivered Paul from all the threats and hardships he had encountered there.

Paul then enunciates a principle which occurs regularly in the New Testament and which has been a fact of life in the Church at all times:

…all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

We find similar warnings in the Gospel:

…you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matt 10:22)

It was precisely in the places mentioned above that Paul had encouraged the Christians there:

It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), put it slightly differently when he said he hoped that his men would always experience some persecution.  It was a sure sign they were doing their job.  We should not be surprised, then, at attacks on or ridicule of our Christian churches.

In fact, there will always be, as Paul says, “wicked people and impostors” for whom the message of the gospel is anathema and a threat. They will do what they can to destroy it and its messengers.  But as long as the gospel of Truth and Love is proclaimed it cannot fail, no matter what is thrown against it.

Timothy is urged to remain faithful to all that he learned and believed from his teachers, who include Paul as well as Timothy’s mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois (whose names are given at the beginning of the letter).  They had taught him the word of God from his earliest years.  A Jewish boy formally began to study the Scriptures when he was five years old.  (Timothy, we know, was born of a gentile father and a Jewish mother and would have been seen by Jews as one of them.  Because of that, Paul had had him circumcised to make him more acceptable to fellow-Jews.)

Paul says that the Scriptures, the word of God, are:

…sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Wisdom is not knowledge or information; it is a deep insight into the realities of our world and an ability to see how all things relate to each other.  The particular wisdom here is that which comes through our commitment to the vision of life that Jesus and the gospel give.

Paul continues:

All scripture is inspired by God…

Paul affirms God’s active involvement in the writing of Scripture, an involvement so powerful and pervasive that what is written is the infallible and authoritative word of God.  At this time, the primary reference here must be to what we call the Old Testament as some of the New Testament books had not yet even been written.  However, by the time of the later books, e.g. 1 Timothy and 2 Peter, some of the New Testament books and other written material (which later would become part of the canon) were being considered as being on the same level as the Old Testament books.  (At the same time, one feels that Paul would be very surprised to know that some of the letters he wrote, apparently in some haste at times, would be seen as God’s revealed word to us!)

An understanding of the Scriptures then is an essential source for:

…teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…

Armed with this understanding, all those who are “person[s] of God” will be competent and ready and able for every good work.  For it is through the word of God in Scripture that we:

…may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

The Scripture contains a wisdom which should guide all our Christian lives, and it is regrettable that so many Catholics (as opposed to many Protestants) are far less familiar than they should be with God’s Word in both the Old and New Testaments.  It was St Jerome who said that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

It is amazing at times to hear people, who hardly ever open a Bible, pontificate about Jesus and the nature of Christianity. If we are among those who have to admit that much of the Bible is a closed book to us, let us resolve today to make ourselves more familiar with it. We will find there an inexhaustible source of inspiration for our lives. 

Those with experience will tell you that, no matter how many times they read Bible passages, there is still more insight to be gained.  It is not like a mystery novel that can be tossed aside once it is finished. It is more like a great piece of classical music that can be listened to again and again and which is ever open to new interpretations while remaining faithful to the original.

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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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Commentary on Luke 6:20-26

The Gospel reading is from Luke’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, which more or less parallels Matthew’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’. Luke’s is much shorter, but both begin with the Beatitudes and end with the parable of the house builders. Some of what is found in Matthew’s Sermon is found elsewhere in Luke, because Matthew’s Sermon consists of disparate sayings of Jesus gathered into one place. Luke also omits Matthew’s specifically Jewish material which would not have been relevant to his gentile readers.

While both Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and Luke’s Sermon on the Plain each begin with their own version of the Beatitudes, there are striking differences. Whereas Matthew has eight (some would say seven) Beatitudes, Luke has four “Blesseds” and four contrasting “Woes”. As is typical of his uncompromising style when it comes to following Jesus, the language of Luke is much more direct and hard-hitting, and it may well be closer to what Jesus actually said.

Matthew’s Beatitudes propose a set of attitudes which reflect the spirit of the Kingdom—qualities to be found in the truly Christian and human life. Luke, on the other hand, speaks of material conditions in this life which will be overturned. Later in this Gospel, this is illustrated graphically in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-30).

Luke also has Jesus speaking in the second person: “Blessed are you” and “Woe to you” rather than in the third person as Matthew does (“Blessed are those who…”). Nor does he speak of the “poor in spirit”, but of “you who are poor”, and he certainly means the materially poor.

He goes on to say how blessed too are:

…you who are hungry…you who weep…you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.

Undoubtedly Matthew’s Beatitudes can be read to consider just spiritual poverty and a hunger for righteousness, which in fact are also a form of real poverty and real hunger. In contrast, Luke’s is a Gospel for the materially poor and distressed, and we must be careful not to turn our focus away from them. That is why he has Jesus being born in poverty and dying naked and destitute (of even his ‘friends’).

Jesus tells those who are poor and hungry and abused to:

…Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

And this is the way Jesus the Prophet will also be treated.

In a first read, it seems like a classical example of religion as the ‘opium of the people’: Be happy that you are having such a hard time now because there is a wonderful future waiting for you in the next world (as was mockingly described by the atheist Karl Marx).

The second part is not likely to go down well in our contemporary developed world:

• But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
• Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
• Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
• Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

How are we to understand these sayings which turn our common worldview upside down? They have to be seen in the light of the Kingdom, in the kind of society that Jesus came to set up, a society based on mutual love and sharing and support. This is a Kingdom for this world and not just the next. The coming of such a society could only be good news for the poor and destitute (material and otherwise), for those suffering from hunger (physical and otherwise), for those depressed by deep sorrow and for those abused and rejected for their commitment to Jesus and his Way.

On the other hand, it would not be good news for those self-focused people who amass material wealth at the expense of others, who indulge in excessive consumption of the world’s goods, who live lives centred on personal hedonism and pleasure, and who feed off the envy and adulation of those around them. They are really not part of that Kingdom. To enter fully into the Kingdom, they have to unload all these concerns and obsessions and let go. Instead of focusing on what they can get, they will have to focus on what they can share of what they have.

A clear example is the rich young man in the Gospel. How rich he was—and yet how sad he was! Compare him with Zacchaeus, whom we will be meeting later on.

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Commentary on Luke 2:33-35 or John 19:25-27

(Note: The Gospel readings today are proper to the memorial and must be used even if the ferial readings are otherwise chosen.)

There are two choices for the Gospel reading. The first is from Luke’s account of the Presentation in the Temple. While they were in the Temple, Mary and Joseph met the holy man Simeon, who had been promised that he would not die before laying eyes on the Messiah. When he meets Mary and Joseph, he recognises the Messiah in the baby she is holding. He then proceeds to make some prophecies about Jesus and, addressing Mary herself, tells her:

…a sword will pierce your own soul, too.

He does not specify what that “sword” might be but now we can see that it particularly alludes to the suffering and death of Jesus which she witnessed. However, the “sword” can also be applied to the other painful experiences we remember as the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

The alternative Gospel reading is from John’s account of the Crucifixion where he mentions that “his mother” was standing by the foot of the Cross as her Son died. With her were “…his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Also standing next to his mother was “the disciple whom he loved”.

Seeing them there, Jesus entrusts the ‘Beloved Disciple’ to the care of his Mother, while telling the Beloved Disciple that Jesus’ Mother is his also. Some would see in this scene the Mother of Jesus as symbolising the Christian community. There is to be a relationship of mutual support between the community and its dedicated members. The community exists for the well-being of the individual members and each member is committed in turn to the well-being of the community.

And who was more united to Jesus than his Mother? It is because of her acceptance of and identification with the sufferings of her Son that we celebrate her memory today.