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Commentary on Matthew 7:15-20

Today’s reading continues from the Sermon on the Mount and contains a warning which must have been very relevant in the early Church, but has not lost its meaning in our own day.

Sadly, there are ‘prophets’ who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. On the outside, they seem to have the image of Jesus, his gentleness and love, but in fact they are religious predators, using people for their own ends. There have been unfortunate examples of this in some so-called ‘televangelists’ who, in the name of the Lord Jesus, ripped off countless numbers of trusting people, many of them elderly and not well-off, by making them pledge large sums of money they could not afford.

How can you recognise them? By their “fruits”, i.e. by the way they behave and not just by what they say or the claims they make. It is not that difficult to separate the genuine from the false. As Jesus says, it is not possible for a bad tree to consistently produce good fruit nor for a genuinely good tree to produce bad fruit. Very often we have to admit that we try to make a good impression on people and we often try to hide from others what we believe to be our weaknesses.

Integrity and transparency are precious qualities to be found in any person and they are not easy to achieve. Most of us wear masks of some kind. Yet people can often identify more easily with a person whose faults are admitted. They feel that they are dealing with the real person and not a phoney. This can apply very much to pastors and other religious leaders.

Jesus is calling on us today to be really genuine people. Take care of the inside and the outside will take care of itself.

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Commentary on Philippians 3:17—4:1

Today, Paul continues to warn the Philippians about not being led astray in the living of their Christian faith, and he urges them to follow Paul’s own example. This might sound arrogant, but Paul, who had been himself such a devout and observant Jew, is utterly convinced that his whole life has now been taken over by Christ. As such, he now sees life in a completely different way. He is equally convinced that the Way of Jesus goes far beyond what the Law demands, and that it is the only test of a true interior spirituality. He also urges them to use as models other members of the community who see things the same way as Paul does.

Once again he deplores the presence of some who “live as enemies of the cross of Christ”. Their lives are in glaring contrast to Paul’s own conduct and to the truth of the Gospel. They are behaving in a way which negates all that Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. Jesus’ death was our liberation, and these people want to go back to a stifling and arid observance of the Law.

Paul writes:

…their god is the belly…

This does not quite mean that they live to eat, but rather that they have given a quite irrational importance to dietary laws. They act as if a person who eats ‘clean’ food is good, and one who eats ‘unclean’ food is bad. Jesus had this accusation thrown at him more than once. He responded by saying it was not what went into the stomach that counted, but what came out of the mouth and the heart.

Paul continues:

…their glory is in their shame…

This is a veiled reference to the prominence that circumcision gives to the male sexual organ, something that in all modesty (‘shame’ in actual meaning) we normally keep out of sight.

Furthermore:

…their minds are set on earthly things.

The Law is something “earthly”. Although it was given by God on Mount Sinai, people’s goodness and virtue is being measured not by spiritual values, but by the external, physical observance of certain actions and rituals.

But it is different for the followers of Christ:

…our citizenship is in heaven…

That is, our eyes are focused not on the things we do in this world, including religious actions, but on God our Father, on Jesus his Son and our Brother, and on the Spirit that guides us into all truth and love. We live here, we “work on [our] own salvation” (Phil 2:12) here, but ultimately we do not belong here. We are on our way to a better home, where:

he will wipe every tear from their eyes… (Rev 21:4)

We look forward to the day when Christ Jesus, Saviour and Lord of the whole universe, will come to take us to himself and transform our corruptible selves into something glorious that shares the very life of God.

Jesus’ power, earned by his total obedience in accepting death and given to him in his resurrection-ascension, is total and absolute. He will “transform the body of our humiliation”, subject to weakness, decay and death, to be like his glorious Body. The resurrection body, received already by Christ, who is the “firstfruits”, will be shared by believers in the future resurrection ‘harvest’. Then, the glorified Christ, as Alpha and Omega, will draw all creation—us included—into total conformity with Himself, who is the image of the Creator God.

So hang in there, urges Paul:

…stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

They are not to be led astray by the “dogs” and “cutters” who do not understand the call of the Gospel and are creators of division.

Our communities, too, can be undermined by people who, perhaps with good intentions, actually act against the spirit of the Gospel. Sometimes they are those who want to turn the clock back and restore old customs which the Church sees as no longer relevant in our day. Sometimes they are those who neglect all tradition, and act in an individualistic and self-centred way, where freedom becomes licence.

It is only by constant listening to God’s Word, constant sharing and careful discernment of the signs of the times, that we can remain faithful to the true spirit of Jesus’ teaching and the Gospel.

In the last sentence today, Paul expresses his deep affection for the Philippians, arguably his favourite church community:

…my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…

Once again the word “joy” comes in. And they are also his “crown”, the high point, as it were, of his evangelising work. This is great praise indeed for them.

How would Paul value our community or our local church, if he were to come among us today? Would we be his joy? Could we be seen as a crowning example of a Christian people?

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The scriptural commentaries in Living Space were written by Fr Frank Doyle SJ and are a wonderfully rich resource for us all. Sadly, we do not have a commentary for today’s readings.

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Commentary on Acts 2:14, 22-33

We begin today reading from the Acts of the Apostles. From now until the end of the Seventh Week of Easter the weekday First Readings will be from the Acts. The Sunday First Readings will also be from Acts.

Today’s reading follows immediately on the account of the Pentecost experience. The immediate result of that experience is for Peter, filled with the Spirit and as leader of the new community, to begin proclaiming the message about Jesus Christ as Saviour to the people gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Pentecost.

It is the first of six such kerygmas (from the Greek kerux, meaning a ‘herald’) or proclamations in Acts about Jesus as Risen Lord and Messiah-King. Five of them are attributed to Peter and the final one to Paul (to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, 13:16-41). Peter’s address follows a pattern that became common in the early Church:

1. an explanation of what was happening;
2. the proclamation of the death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus the Christ;
3. an exhortation to repentance, a change of life and baptism.

Peter stood before the crowd, flanked by the Eleven (including Matthias, newly chosen to replace Judas as a witness who had been with Jesus “from the beginning”). Peter spoke, then, not just in his own name but in the name of the whole apostolic “college”. Right from the beginning, his special position in the group is recognised.

And he has “good news” (i.e. gospel, Old English god-spell; Greek, euanggelion) to communicate to them. His words reflect the content of the earliest apostolic preaching:

First, he gives witness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his being raised to glory.

Second, there are some general details of Christ’s ministry and how it was proclaimed in advance by John the Baptist, inaugurated by teaching and miracles, completed by appearances of the Risen Christ and the giving of the Spirit to his followers.

And third, the story of Jesus is put in the wider context of the Old Testament prophecies, while at the same time looking forward to a Messianic age. Everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is called to a radical change of life in order to be ready for the Christ’s glorious return (believed then to be in the near future).

Peter, then, reminds them that Jesus had appeared among the people – as many of his hearers were well aware – and performed signs and wonders as the credentials of his real identity. But, in the inscrutable plan of God, he was “handed over” (again we have that term which goes like a refrain through the New Testament).

Sad to say, those who handed Jesus over were from among his own people, perhaps including some of those listening to Peter, and they had even delivered him into the hands of the Romans (“men outside the Law”) for crucifixion. There must surely have been some uneasy feelings among the crowd when he said that.

But Jesus was liberated from the pain of death, as death had no power over him. Peter sees in words spoken by King David their fulfilment in Jesus, his descendant. The words spoken of David, “You will not abandon my soul to Hades [Sheol, the place of the dead]”, are seen as applying more appropriately to Jesus because David died, was buried and the place of his tomb was known to his hearers. But Jesus “is the one who was not abandoned to Hades, and whose body did not experience corruption”. Instead, “God raised this man Jesus to life and all of us are witnesses to that.”

We, too, are called to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection and his living presence among us by the way we live both individually and as a community.

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Commentary on Ecclesiasticus 27:33 – 28:7; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35

Forgiveness of wrongs done against us is something that many of us Christians find extremely difficult. We probably think Peter is extremely generous in suggesting that he should forgive his brother as many as seven times. Yet Jesus pushes it even further by saying:

Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

In practice, this means an infinite number of times. It seems hopelessly idealistic and impractical. Yet, further reflection may help us realise that there is really no alternative for the Christian and the truly human person than to forgive – indefinitely.

The words of Jesus turn upside down the boast of Lamech in the book of Genesis. Lamech was the father of Noah, the man who built the ark and saved the human race and all the animals from the Flood. Lamech said to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.

This is the philosophy behind such groupings as Asian triad societies as well as organized crime and terrorists organisations. It is clearly an approach which does nothing except produce death, pain, grief and the seeds for more of the same. It is a way we see portrayed night after night in movies and which our young people experience in the computer games they play.

But the words of Jesus also seem in conflict with the passage we had last Sunday about the “brother” in the Christian community who does wrong and refuses to reform. If he persists in his wrongdoing, he is not to be forgiven indefinitely. On the contrary, he is to be excluded from the community’s life. How are we to bring together this advice and Jesus’ urging to forgive “seventy-seven times”?

Jesus’ story
First, let us look at the parable which follows Jesus’ words. It is a parable about a senior official who has incurred a debt of 10,000 ‘talents’. One talent was already a very large amount of money. It is difficult to make a meaningful comparison in today’s currency but let us say, that, roughly, a talent was worth US$1,000. To say the servant owed 10,000 talents is to say, in other words, ‘without limit’. Jesus is saying this official owed a sky-high debt which he could never have any hope of paying back.

Yet this same official comes down heavily on a much lower official who owed him 100 denarii. A denarius was the equivalent of one day’s work for a labourer. Compared to what the senior official owed, 100 denarii was nothing. Yet, the lower official gets no mercy and is tossed, together with his whole family, into a debtor’s prison until the debt is paid (presumably by relatives or colleagues). When the king hears about this, the senior official himself gets thrown into prison. Given the amount of his debt, it is unlikely he would ever get out.

Gospel teaching
Both the words of Jesus and the parable linked with them throw us back to the Lord’s Prayer as it is presented in the Sermon on the Mount. In the ‘Our Father’ which we recite together in every Eucharist, we say:

…and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Further commenting on these words, Matthew has Jesus say:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt 6: 12,14-15)

There are two very clear messages from both the parable and the words from the Sermon on the Mount. The first is that we dare not hold back forgiveness from those God forgives. And we know, from the Gospel, God’s attitude towards wrongdoers and his penchant for forgiveness.

But the second message is that the divine patience is not infinite. God, as Jesus tells us to do, is ready to forgive 77 times. And, when it comes to the forgiveness of our own sins, we take this for granted. (Imagine if God were to say, “In your lifetime I will give you just five chances to repent and, after that you’ve had it.”) At the same time, there is a limit to the extent of God’s forgiveness in the sense that it is conditional. That condition is determined first, by our readiness to respond to his forgiveness through our repentance and conversion, and second, by our willingness to imitate him in practising forgiveness of those we feel have offended or hurt us.

Refusing forgiveness
Strange as it may seem, the all-powerful God does not fully forgive the person to whom pardon is offered but who refuses it. Because ultimately, the problem is not just one of ‘forgiveness’ but also of ‘reconciliation’. While we can ourselves forgive, reconciliation is not done alone. Without at least the hope of reconciliation, our forgiveness feels incomplete.

God cannot just say a million times over to the sinner, “I forgive you.” There is an incompleteness on our part just to say, “I know you did something terrible but, because I am a practising Christian, I forgive you.” You may feel very good about talking in that way, but it has not really solved the problem or healed the wound. My responsibility is not over by saying, “I forgive”, if the other person has not changed their attitude towards me in any way. One-sided forgiving can be a source of real smugness, “How good I am!”, or further hurt, “I forgave but he/she continued to hate/hurt me!” At the same time, even with the best will in the world I cannot force another person to be reconciled with me. Ultimately, reconciliation is a personal decision on each side.

Forgiving in the full Christian sense is a form of loving and caring. The problem is that people’s actions towards us are seen as attacks on our vulnerability, our self-esteem. We become completely obsessed by what is happening to us and do not take time to reflect on what is behind the other person’s behaviour.

A hating or angry person is nearly always a person who is more hurting to his- or herself than the object of the hatred or anger. But if on my part there is no effort to understand what is happening to the other person, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing can’t really get off the ground.

There is a saying in psychology, “People make the best choices available to them.” Sad to say, many have very poor choices available to them for one reason or another. People normally do not hate or hurt out of genuine malice for the most part. It can make a big difference to me and to them to try to understand why people act towards me in the way they do.

I may even come to be aware that I am partly responsible for their reactions. I can well ask myself, “What is it in me that makes this person act like this?” When I approach a mutual problem in this way, both forgiveness and reconciliation become so much easier. I am going to feel much less hurt much more of the time. I am going to reach out in compassion to the hurts and weaknesses of others.

Sin and sinner
A person who is fully secure in the knowledge of being totally loved by God and of their own lovableness is not going to find forgiveness and reconciliation too difficult. Forgiving 77 times will not seem idealistic, but simply the only reasonable thing to do. At the same time, like God and like the Christian community, forgiveness cannot be complete if it means indefinite tolerance of evil and unjust behaviour. The king was perfectly ready to forgive the senior official, but how could reconciliation take place when he behaved in such an abominable way to a brother? We can be ready to forgive the sinner indefinitely, but we must fight against sin without counting the cost.

God and the Church can forgive the repentant sinner but they cannot condone unrepentant behaviour that is a source of real evil and suffering. God cannot be reconciled with the sinner who chooses to stay in sin, nor can the Christian community fully incorporate a member who refuses reconciliation and healing by continuing with behaviour that offends against truth and love. It takes two to tango and also to effect a reconciliation.

With God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and with the individual Christian, forgiveness is infinitely available, but reconcilliation is only achieved when a mutual healing of wounds is sought. Only where there is a desire to have that change of mind and behaviour present is an end put to the sinful way.

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Commentary on Acts 18:23-28

Today we begin the third, and final, missionary journey of Paul. After leaving Corinth, Paul, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, crossed over to Ephesus on the west coast of present-day Turkey. He separated from them there and went to preach in the local synagogues. In spite of the unwelcome reception he so often got from his fellow-Jews, he always made a point of approaching them first when he arrived in a new place. He apparently did well there, because they asked him to stay longer. However, he was clearly anxious to get back to Syrian Antioch, but he promised that he would return—and he did.

On reaching Palestine, he landed at Caesarea where he greeted the local church before going on northwards to Antioch, and it is at that point that today’s reading begins.

He stayed in Antioch for an unspecified length of time before setting out on his third—and final—missionary journey. He began by revisiting the places where he had planted the church almost 10 years previously. He followed the same route he had taken when beginning his second journey, but in the reverse order. The only place mentioned is the “region of Galatia and Phrygia”, which is in the southern part of present-day central Turkey.

We are then introduced to Apollos, who had just arrived from Ephesus in Lydia, on the west coast. He was a Jew and a native of Alexandria, which was on the north coast of Egypt and, at the time, the second largest city of the Roman Empire. It also had a large Jewish population.

Apollos is spoken of very highly as a man of eloquence, well-versed both in the Hebrew Scriptures and:

…instructed in the Way of the Lord…

Apollos also:

…spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

He was a clearly deeply spiritual person. It is strange though, that in spite of all that Apollos knew about Jesus, he had not yet been properly baptised in the name of Jesus. Basically, like John the Baptist, he was still looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. His baptism was based on repentance for sin rather than full incorporation through the gift of the Spirit in the Christian community.

In Ephesus, he became an enthusiastic preacher and spoke fearlessly in the Jewish synagogue there. Here he drew the attention of Paul’s friends, Priscilla and Aquila, who took him to their house and gave him a deeper understanding of the new Way.

Perhaps because of what he had heard from Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos was anxious to go across to Achaia, in other words to Corinth, and letters were written to guarantee him a warm welcome. There he gave great encouragement to the believers while continuing to debate with his fellow-Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

It is clear that Apollos had a very special charism for evangelisation, so much so that cliques began to form in the community where some were for Paul and others for Apollos. These developed into quarrelling factions. Paul would later deplore this development in one of his letters (see 1 Cor 1:12 and 3:4-11).

These remarks about Apollos have something in common with the description of what we find in the next chapter (chap 19) that describes Paul’s arrival in Ephesus. Here, we are told that the disciples there were only baptised:

…into John’s baptism [and had] not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Paul had all these people baptised in the name of Jesus.

Despite the quarreling factions that arose, we should take inspiration from the insights and zeal of Apollos for the Way of Jesus in the context of evangelisation today.

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Note: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—also known as Corpus Christi—is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. But in some countries and in some dioceses, it is celebrated on the following Sunday.

Commentary on Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58 Read Corpus Christi – The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year A) »

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Commentary on Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18 Read The Most Holy Trinity (Year A) »

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Commentary on Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23 Read Pentecost Sunday (Year A) »