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Commentary on 1 Samuel 1:9-20

Today we find Hannah, the barren wife of Elkanah, still at the Lord’s central sanctuary in Shiloh. The sanctuary is also referred to in 1 Samuel as the “the temple of the Lord”, “the house of the Lord”, “the Tent of Meeting” and “my dwelling”. The references to the sanctuary as a “house” and a “temple” as well as mention of “sleeping quarters” and “doors” suggests that at this time the sanctuary or ‘tabernacle’ was a larger, more permanent building.

While Eli the priest sat near the door, Hannah prayed in tears to God begging to have her shame removed. She asks the Lord to “remember” her. This is not simply to be aware of her existence, but to go into action on her behalf.

She was making a vow that, if God gave her a male child, she would dedicate him entirely to God’s service for the whole of his life. This was in contrast to the normal period of service for Levites, which was from the ages of 25 to 50. Her offer of her son to Yahweh is similar to promises made with Isaac, Samson and John the Baptist, where God was seen to intervene in the birth. Hannah’s child, Samuel, born of a barren mother would—like them—be dedicated to service in the sanctuary. As with Samson, too, leaving the hair uncut would be a sign of dedication to the Lord, although there is no mention of Samson as a ‘nazirite’. The nazirite vow was normally taken for a limited time rather than for life, as is happening here. Also, the son that Hannah seeks will, like Samson, drink neither wine nor liquor.

Hannah prayed in this way for a long time in silence, though her lips moved. Since people usually prayed out loud, Eli thought she was drunk. Heavy drinking was apparently not unusual on the occasion of big feasts. He told her severely to sober up and stop making a show of herself. She asked him not to think badly of her; she was not drunk, only deeply unhappy as she begged the Lord to hear her prayer. Eli, seeing the situation, then sent her off with a lovely blessing:

Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.

She only asked him in return to think more kindly of her.

After going back home, she ate with her husband and experienced a kind of peace. The next day they went once more to the sanctuary to pray and then returned to their home in Ramah. And now, when Elkanah was intimate with Hannah, “the Lord remembered her”, as she had asked him. She conceived and gave birth to a boy and:

She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

A derivation from the root sha’al (to ask) would give sha’ul from which one gets the name Saul. However, biblical etymology was often, as here, content with an approximate similarity of sound. The actual derivation of ‘Samuel’ is from Shem-El, meaning ‘the name of God’ or ‘(God’s) name is El’.

This story is one of a number in the Bible where barren women are given children by God’s intervention. In every case, the child has a calling to serve God in a very special way. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah was one of these as was Samson, who helped God’s people defeat the Philistines. Much later, Elizabeth, although well past child-bearing age, will give birth to John the Baptist. He too will be dedicated to God in a special way.

Mary, too, under special circumstances will give birth to Jesus through God’s intervention. We will see later how Samuel will become a prophet of the Lord and be involved with the career of David as king.

Perhaps our birth has not been accompanied by such special circumstances, yet each one of us is, in a special kind of way, a gift from God to our parents, and each one of us has a calling, a vocation, to serve him and our brothers and sisters in a unique way. Let us identify with that call and, with God’s help, try to respond to it as well as we can.

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Commentary on Mark 1:14-20

We now begin our readings from Mark’s Gospel and we will be following him for the next several weeks. Today’s reading follows immediately on the short accounts of Jesus’ baptism and temptations in the desert that Mark gives. It is the beginning of his public ministry. The reading consists of two main parts—a summary of Jesus’ teaching and the first response to it.

As the passage opens, we are told that John (the Baptist) has been arrested (the reason for his arrest will be given later). The word for ‘arrest’ is literally ‘handed over’, a key word which will be used later of Jesus himself, his disciples, and indeed of many others down the centuries. The term is also used in our Eucharist when the celebrant at the consecration says:

This is my Body which will be given up for you.

Our translation of ‘given up’ represents the Latin word tradetur, which literally means ‘handed over’. Jesus is daily handed over to us, or rather, he hands himself over to us and expects us to do the same for our brothers and sisters.

Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming the gospel, the good news, of God. It is summed up in the words:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

It is a deceptively simple statement which, in fact, is rich in meaning. One can say that the whole of the gospel message is contained in those two sentences.

The following words require comment:

• time
• kingdom
• repent
• believe in

The time is fulfilled
In the Scriptures, ‘time’ is translated using the Greek word kairos. Specifically, kairos refers to a moment when something is ripe to happen, a serendipitous moment. And that exactly describes the appearance of Jesus, an appearance which the whole of the Old Covenant has been preparing for and leading up to.

The Kingdom of God is at hand
The whole of Jesus’ message centres round the idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’. It was the coming of that Kingdom which he proclaimed; it was the core of his teaching. Because of Matthew’s use of the term “Kingdom of heaven”, there is a possibility that we think of the ‘Kingdom’ as only belonging to the life after death. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The word ‘Kingdom’ translates the Greek word basileia, an abstract noun which is better rendered as ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’. Kingdom here does not refer to a place. It points to the ruling power of God, a power based above all on love. Wherever the love of God prevails in our world we can say that the Kingdom is there. Love essentially involves other people, so the Kingdom is not a place or an action, but a complex of harmonious and interacting relationships. Jesus came to call every single person to belong to such a world.

We need to emphasise that the Kingdom and the Church, or the Kingdom and Christianity, do not coincide. The role of the Church is to be a sacrament of the Kingdom. It fulfils that role with varying degrees of success. There are Kingdom people everywhere, that is, people who base their lives on love and justice, on peace and freedom, who are not Christians at all—but they are Kingdom people, because their lives reflect the spirit of God. Mere membership in a Christian group does not guarantee one is a Kingdom person.

Repent
Here we have the basic steps needed to become fully a Kingdom person. First, we need to repent. This is the most common translation of the Greek verb for the noun metanoia. It is not a very happy rendering. ‘Repent’, for most people means being sorry for something done in the past. That is not excluded here; rather metanoia looks much more to the future. Metanoia really means a radical change in one’s thinking, in this case, about the meaning and purpose of life, and how that life is to be lived. Jesus is calling here for a radical conversion, and for us to take to heart his vision of life.

Believe in the good news
And how is that metanoia to be achieved? It will come about by our believing in the “good news”, i.e. the gospel. For many Christians, ‘belief’ means the total acceptance of the teachings of Christ as interpreted for us by the Church. But something more is asked of us here. We are asked not just to believe, but to believe in. It is one thing to believe something is true, but that belief may not affect our lives very much. In calling on us to believe in the message that the gospel brings, we are being asked for a total investment of ourselves, and not just the accepting of doctrines as true. We are being called on to live our lives and pattern them on the model of Jesus himself. Again, we will see what that entails as we go through the Gospel in coming weeks.

The second part of the reading gives us a dramatic example of some people who did just what Jesus was asking. As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, who were fishermen, casting their nets into the sea. They were doing their daily work. Jesus said to them:

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.

There and then, they dropped their nets, their whole means of livelihood, and went after Jesus. A little further on Jesus saw two sons of Zebedee, James and John, who were mending their nets. These two Jesus also called. They promptly left their father in the boat with his hired men and followed Jesus. Later Jesus will say:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Here we have that metanoia, that radical change of life, taking place. They follow Jesus with total trust. As they go off, they have no idea where they are going or what it will entail. They believe in Jesus, putting all their trust in him. They were to meet many trials and tribulations on the way, but they never regretted the step they took. Only by following their example will we too have the same experience. The only guarantee we have is that those who do take Jesus’ call seriously, and live it to the fullest, know that they made the right choice.

Finally, we might say that this story is to be read as a kind of parable. We say this because we know that later on, the disciples will still be in contact with their families and those boats will appear several times in the Gospel story. What is being emphasised here is the total commitment to the Way and vision of Jesus, which is symbolised by the total abandoning of the boats and family members.

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Commentary on 1 Samuel 1:1-8

We begin this new year’s Ordinary Time First Readings with the First Book of Samuel. The book opens by introducing us to Elkanah, a good and religious man who comes from Rama-thaim. The place was also known as Ramah. It may be the same as the Ramah of Benjamin (see Jos 18:25), which was located in the hill country about 8 km (5 miles) north of Jerusalem, near the border between the territories of Ephraim and Benjamin.

Elkanah is called an Ephraimite, but he was more likely a Levite whose family belonged to the Kohathite clans to whom had been allotted towns in Ephraim. Ephraim lay north of Judah and just north-west of the Dead Sea. Jerusalem was in the territory of Benjamim (see any decent Old Testament map).

According to the custom of the time, he had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. We first see polygamy enter the Old Testament with Lamech (Gen 4:19). Although the union of Adam and Eve (Gen 2:23-44) seems to endorse monogamy as God’s intention, we know that many of the patriarchs were polygamous and otherwise unfaithful, if not actually promiscuous. We remember how Sarai (Sarah), the barren wife of Abram, tells her husband to sleep with her slave in order to have a son. Later, of course, Sarah does have a son—Isaac, who will become the patriarch of God’s people. In Genesis (25:6) there is mention of the concubines of Abraham.

Penninah had borne several children to her husband, but Hannah was barren, perhaps the most painful experience any married women of those times could have. It was a culture where a woman’s success was measured by her being able to give children, especially sons, to her husband and his family, thus ensuring the continuance of the family line. Sometimes, of course, it is the husband who is sterile, but that is clearly not the situation here.

Every year Elkanah made a yearly pilgrimage with his family to the shrine at Shiloh and offered sacrifice there. The archeological site of Tel-Shiloh is about 19 km (12 miles) south of Nablus, between Bethel and Shechem. It was the home of the Ark in the time of Joshua, but its sanctuary there was destroyed probably by the Philistines after the defeat mentioned in chapter 4 of 1 Samuel.

Three times a year, every Israelite male was required to appear before the Lord at the central sanctuary. The term used here is “Lord of hosts” (or in some translations “Yahweh of armies”). This alluded not just to the people of Israel, but included the stars and other heavenly powers, angels and all cosmic forces—all seen as being under God’s command. This ancient title was associated with the Ark (see 1 Sam 4:3), the sacred emblem protecting Israel whenever Yahweh waged war with his people on their enemies.

With the establishment of kingship in Israel the term ‘Lord of hosts’ became particularly appropriate as a reference to God as the ‘God of armies’—both of the heavenly army and of the army of Israel. Although this is the first recorded use of the title in the Old Testament, it is used freely in the major prophets (with the exception of Ezekiel) and in the Psalms.

The festival referred to here was probably the feast of the Shelters (Tabernacles), which not only commemorated God’s care for his people during the desert journey to Canaan, but more especially celebrated, with joy and feasting, God’s blessing on the year’s crops. On such festive occasions Hannah’s deep sorrow because of her own barrenness was the more poignant.

On that day when he would offer sacrifice, Elkanah would give portions to Penninah and the children she had borne, but a double portion to Hannah*:

…because he loved her [more], though the Lord had closed her womb.

Children were seen primarily as a gift from God. The ‘sacrifice’ here refers to one which was combined with a festive meal, signifying fellowship and communion with the Lord and gratitude for his mercies.

Penninah would mock and jeer at Hannah’s barrenness and this situation went on year after year. Stricken with shame and distress, Hannah refused to eat. Elkanah, who was clearly a good and compassionate man, tried to console her by reminding her that she had a loving husband, and was he:

…not worth more to her than ten sons?

As we shall see, God is not going to abandon two such very good people. And so the stage is set for something very special to happen.

It is easy for us sometimes to regret that God has not given us some gift which we would dearly love to have. Perhaps, too, we have become the object of people’s mockery or criticism and asked “Why did God do that to me?” Yet God is working in our lives and we need to ask him to help us see where, even in our deficiencies, his love and grace are at work in us. We may be in for some surprises.

Let us then learn to light one candle rather than curse the darkness.

_____________
*There is a difference across various biblical translations of this text. For example, the Jerusalem Bible says that Elkanah gave several portions to his wife, Peninnah, and her children, but only one to Hannah, because God had made her barren. However, the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) and the New American Bible both say that Elkanah gave a double portion to Hannah, even though she was barren, “because he loved her” more. Both texts, however, agree that Elkanah loved Hannah more than Penninah.

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Commentary on Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Titus 2:11-14,3:2-7; Luke 3:15-16,21-22

The baptism of Jesus is the third of three great manifestations or revelations which characterise the Christmas season. Today is a kind of transition. We have come to the end of the Christmas season. Yesterday was ‘Twelfth Night’, the last of the twelve days of Christmas and now we will enter the first week of the Ordinary Season. (Today is also the First Sunday in Ordinary Time, although it is never celebrated. However, the prayers of its Mass will be said during the week.)

The three great revelations we have been celebrating are:

1. Christmas: when God comes among us with the Good News for the poor, the outcast and the sinner. This is Luke’s version, where Jesus is born in poverty and the first to come to pay him homage are poor and marginalised shepherds.
2. Epiphany: when God comes among us with a message of salvation for everyone, for all the people of the world, and not just for one select group. This is Matthew’s version and the description of the strange visitors from the East.
3. Baptism of Jesus: God is seen as specially present in Jesus and working in him and through him.

Why baptise Jesus?
We might ask ourselves: Why did Jesus need to be baptised? Most of those coming to John the Baptist were repentant sinners. Our baptism, too, is partly to rescue us from the power of sin by being bathed in the redemptive love of Christ.

How does Jesus himself fit into this? We always say that he is like us in all things, except sin. Moreover, John clearly states that he himself is not the Messiah, but only the fore-runner, the herald of his coming. John says:

I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

Undoing sandals was something only slaves did. In other words, John felt that, in Jesus’ case, he was not even worthy to do that. And yet, Jesus is to be baptised by John.

Two answers
There are two answers we can give to the question of why Jesus was baptised:

1. By being baptised in the River Jordan with all those self-proclaimed sinners, Jesus shows his total solidarity with us. John’s Gospel says:

   …the Word became flesh and lived among us…
   (John 1:14)

   He does not say that the Word was made a human person, but that the Word “became flesh”. In biblical language, ‘flesh’ (Greek, sarx) has all the connotations of our human weaknesses. In becoming a human person, Jesus identified with us not just in our humanity, but in our weak human-ness. Jesus had the same feelings and reactions that we have; only he never did sin or do anything wrong. This solidarity with us was indicated by the criticism of the Pharisees that Jesus spent so much time eating and drinking with sinners and outcasts.

   Despite his dignity and rank as Son of God and Messiah, Jesus never did require any external signs of privilege. Most of the time, he looked just the same as everyone else. And, when he got up in the synagogue of his home town and began to amaze people with his insight, his neighbours could not understand it. They had lived for years with him and had no idea of this side of his person.

2. There is something different happening here beyond that of an ordinary baptism. Significantly, Luke says that Jesus was at prayer when his baptism took place. At all the most important moments in his public life, Luke represents Jesus as praying. Here, it was at this moment that the Spirit of God, in the visible form of a dove, comes down on Jesus.

   A voice, clearly that of the Father, says:

   You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

   It is clearly a form of “missioning” for Jesus. We could call it his ‘Pentecost’ experience. It is a clear endorsement from his Father for the work that Jesus is about to begin. (Another important endorsement will come at the Transfiguration.)

   So, through his baptism, Jesus is being officially commissioned to begin his public work of teaching, healing and liberating enslaved souls up to the climactic moment of his passion, death and resurrection.

What is Jesus’ mission?
And what is that work that Jesus is to accomplish through his teaching, preaching and healing? That is described in the First Reading from Isaiah and in the Second Reading from the Letter to Titus.

Isaiah promises that valleys will be filled and mountains and hills made low as all obstacles will be removed and the glory of God will be revealed and made accessible to all. The Lord is coming in the person of Jesus:

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms
and carry them in his bosom
and gently lead the mother sheep.

He is the Bread of Life and the Good Shepherd.

In the Second Reading, the Lord comes to bring salvation and wholeness to all and to help us leave behind all “worldly passions”, all those appetites and longings which are ultimately destructive and harmful to our proper destiny. And our baptism is linked with that of Jesus:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

The Word became flesh so that we could be liberated from the sinful inclinations of the flesh.

His baptism also for us
At his baptism, that Spirit came down on Jesus. It was not for him alone, but so that we might receive justice (“justified by his grace”). A just society is one where everyone has what they need to have, where their dignity is respected and affirmed and where people live in right relationships with each other.

Later in his Gospel, Matthew applies the words of the prophet Isaiah to Jesus:

He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
He will not break a bruised reed
or quench a smoldering wick… (Matt 12:19-20)

Here expressed in truly poetic images is a picture of the compassionate Jesus who welcomed sinners and sat down to eat with them; the Good Shepherd who left the ninety-nine “good” ones to go and find just one which had gone astray and to bring it back.

Continuing to quote from Isaiah, Matthew applies these words explicitly to Jesus:

…until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the gentiles will hope. (Matt 12:20-21)

Jesus, in spite of hostility, rejection and efforts to destroy him, will persevere to the end. In fact, it will be in his apparent destruction, his degrading death as a public criminal, that he will galvanise millions to follow him for centuries to come. Jesus’ work is above all to liberate us and set us free. For all of this, Jesus was baptised and commissioned by his Father.

Reflecting on our own baptism
Today is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on our own baptism. It is not something which happened a long time ago and which ‘made’ us Catholics. It is not just a ceremony lasting a few minutes which produces magical effects. Rather, it is the beginning of a lifelong journey. It is the beginning of a process of growing into the Body of Christ as one of its members.

Our baptism is essentially a community experience; it is not just a private or a family event, although in the way it was “celebrated” it may have looked like that. It involves active participation in the life of the Church and not just passive membership. Perhaps we could slightly alter the words of the American president, John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address and ‘Ask not what the Church can do for you, but what you can do for the Church’.

Each one of us is called to be a living witness to the Gospel—to be the salt of the earth, a city on a hill, a lamp radiating light for all. Our baptism is a never-ending call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Every word of Isaiah can also be applied to each one of us who has been baptised. So let us today renew our faith in and our commitment to following Jesus. Let us re-affirm our readiness to carry on his work. For it is a sobering fact that without our co-operation, much of God’s work will never get done.

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According to Matthew’s Gospel, the Holy Innocents, children of Bethlehem two years old and under, were massacred by the Idumean, King Herod the Great. The story really begins with the visit of the Magi or astrologers, ‘Wise Men’, arriving in Jerusalem and enquiring about a newborn child who is “king of the Jews”. They said that they had seen his star in the eastern sky and had come to pay him homage. On hearing the news, Herod, the Romans’ client-king in Judaea, immediately became anxious and the whole of Jerusalem with him. He felt his throne was in danger and that could mean a future attack on the city.

Herod then called together the chief priests and scribes, experts in Jewish law, and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. They said it would be in Bethlehem of Judaea, a small town not far from Jerusalem. They based their answer on a combination of texts. The first, taken from the prophet Micah reads:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days. (Mic 5:2)

Micah is writing during a period when the king in Jerusalem is under great threat from the Assyrians. But the tiny and insignificant town and clan of Bethlehem-Ephrathah is the seat of the Davidic dynasty from which will come the Messianic king to rule over Israel.

The second part of the prophecy echoes a passage in the Second Book of Samuel where the tribes of Israel come to David in Hebron, asking him to be their king. They say to him:

The Lord said to you, ‘It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.’
(2 Sam 5:2)

These were powerful prophecies that clearly made Herod nervous.

Herod summoned the Magi and asked them the exact time of the star’s appearance. He then sent them off to Bethlehem with the instructions:

Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage. (Matt 2:8)

Herod, of course, had a very different kind of homage in mind.

The Magi again set off, and the star they had seen now reappeared and stopped over the place where the Child was. Overcome with joy, they went into the house and found the baby Jesus with Mary his Mother. They fell prostrate on the ground in homage. Then they brought out the gifts they had carried all this way—gold, frankincense and myrrh—customary gifts in the Orient as signs of homage. On the completion of their visit, they were told in a dream not to return to Herod, but to return home by another route.

Also in a dream, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to take the child and his mother and find refuge in Egypt until told otherwise. That very night they left for Egypt and did not return until after the death of Herod.

Matthew sees this as the fulfilment of a prophecy in Hosea:

…out of Egypt I called my son. (Hos 11:1)

In this way the prophet relates Jesus to the destiny of Israel. Just as God called Israel out of Egypt to create his own people, so now he will call Jesus out of Egypt into the land of Israel to accomplish his purpose of creating the new Israel, the People of God. The story of the flight into Egypt thus enables this prophecy to be fulfilled in Jesus. Writing as he is for a Christian Jewish audience, Matthew likes to see events in the life of Jesus as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies.

When Herod realised the astrologers had cheated him, he was furious. On the basis of the information the Magi had given him, he ordered that every boy aged two years and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area should be killed.

How many children actually lost their lives? One Eastern liturgy estimated 14,000 and another list said it was 64,000. A Catholic source in the early 20th century said that in a village of that size the figure could only be between 6 and 20 children. No matter how many, it was still a tragic event.

According to Matthew, the massacre fulfilled a verse of Jeremiah, read as a prophecy of this event:

Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more. (Jer 31:15)

The text was originally a description of the tragedy of the Babylonian exile, when large numbers of Jerusalem’s citizens were taken off as slaves to Babylon. In the following verse God asks “Rachel” to stop weeping because her children:

…shall come back from the land of the enemy. (Jer 31:16)

Some commentators believe the purpose of Matthew for including Jeremiah’s words is not to connect the reference to “weeping” with the slaughtered babies, but rather with the Child Jesus, who has gone to a foreign land (like Israel had before him), but who will return.

The Scripture commentator, Fr Raymond Brown, suggests the account in Matthew is based on an earlier story which was modelled on the killing of the Hebrew firstborn by Pharaoh at the birth of Moses. Such a connection would have been easily understood by Jewish readers.

The feast of Holy Innocents has been observed in the Western Church since the 4th century. They were regarded as martyrs because they not only died for Christ, but in place of Christ.

In honouring the Innocents, the Church honours all who die in a state of innocence, especially very young children and babies, and consoles the parents of children who have died with the conviction that they also will share the glory of the infant companions of the Infant Jesus. In England their feast was called Childermas and some English and French churches claim to have their relics.

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Commentary on Luke 17:1-6

We move on to chapter 17 of Luke and today we have three separate sayings of Jesus which we find in different contexts in Matthew’s Gospel. The first is on the inevitability of scandals. Scandals are those actions or words which, literally, cause people to trip up and fall. Here they refer to words or actions which become obstacles, preventing or making it more difficult for people to believe in and accept Christ and the gospel.

These things are inevitable, Jesus says, but it is tragic for those who are responsible. It is a terrible thing to come between a person and the call of Christ—that is, to be the effective agent for blocking a person’s coming to know and love Christ and his Way. It would be better for the scandal-causer:

…if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to sin.

Jesus is speaking about damage to the “little ones”. This can refer either to those who are young and innocent, or those who are frail in their Christian faith.

Sadly, over the years, our news has been full of many ‘scandals’ on the part of Catholic leaders—bishops, priests, brothers and sisters. It is difficult to say how many people’s faith was weakened by these events, but it is likely that they were enough to make some less committed people experience a sense of disillusionment and abandon the Church.

In some cases, there was probably no scandal in the strict sense, but simply failings due to human frailty. In other cases, especially where the young or the innocent were abused or led astray, real scandal and prolonged harm were certainly present.

Scandal in the gospel sense and in the tabloid sense are not quite the same, and we should be careful to distinguish them. Jesus himself caused ‘scandal’ among some of the religious leaders because he failed to observe certain rituals. This is known as ‘pharisaical scandal’ or ‘hypocritical scandal’. We Catholics can certainly be guilty of this kind of false scandal, and certainly the media at times, for purposes of sensationalism, can blow up certain trivial matters in a particularly obnoxious ‘holier-than-thou’ approach.

But it is not only people in public life who cause scandal. Parents, by an ambivalent, two-standard behaviour, can tell their children to behave in one way while they themselves act in a totally other way. Catholic parents, and others in charge of the guidance of children (such as teachers), need to be particularly careful of being stumbling blocks to their children’s faith.

The second saying is about forgiveness and reconciliation, and it is not unconnected with the question of scandal above. If a brother or sister, that is, a fellow-Christian is clearly in the wrong, he or she should be corrected. And, if the wrong-doer clearly repents, then forgiveness should be given. Even if someone commits the same offence any number of times and each time sincerely expresses sorrow, that person is to be forgiven.

This is not to say that a person can keep doing wrong and expect forgiveness simply by apologizing. Some kind of controlling action may have to be taken. This is especially true where the person is not in control of himself or herself, which could be the case with someone who is addicted to alcohol, drugs, sex, or is the victim of some other compulsive behaviour. But even here, punishment alone cannot be a satisfactory solution. Rather, every effort must be made to heal and rehabilitate.

As Christians, the whole thrust of our actions is for reconciliation, and not judgement and condemnation. We need to remember the teaching about God’s love for the sinner in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost (prodigal) son (see Luke chap 15).

The third saying is about faith, that is, deep trust in God. The apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. This may be seen in the context of the warning about scandal, and the requirement to forgive indefinitely. He told them:

If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Perhaps an area where we need a strong trust is in trying to rehabilitate both the givers and the victims of scandal, and certainly we need faith if we are to be able sincerely to forgive, again and again, those who have hurt us or others. But true forgiveness is not the simple writing off of a wrongdoing. Rather, it is taking the necessary steps to restore a status quo of harmony and peace and mutual love and respect. And it should be noted, that can take a long time.

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Commentary on Wisdom 1:1-7

Today we go back to the Old Testament and during the whole of this week our readings are from the Book of Wisdom. This is one of the later books in the Bible and, unlike most of the others, was written in Greek rather than Hebrew. It dates from only about 100 BC and was written in Alexandria, a centre of Hellenism on the north coast of Egypt. It is one of the so-called deutero-canonical books, not part of the Jewish Bible nor recognised as part of the Bible by most Protestant churches (although some non-Catholic bibles may include it in a section of ‘apocrypha’). It was used by the Fathers of the Church from the second century AD, and despite some hesitation and opposition, notably from St Jerome, was recognised as being inspired in just the same way as the books of the Hebrew canon.

The name of the author is not known, but he was a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt. Alexandria was the second city of the Roman Empire at this time. He wrote in Greek, but following a Hebrew-verse style. In order to give greater credence to his statements, he puts them in the mouth of Solomon, renowned for his wisdom, but who lived long before this book was written. Throughout, the author shows himself deeply familiar with the earlier Old Testament writings.

His main purpose in writing was to give encouragement to his fellow-Jews during a time of great suffering and oppression, not least from apostate fellow-Jews. The first 10 chapters prepare us for the fuller teachings of Christ and his church. And many passages from this part of the book, especially Wisdom 3:1-7, are used by the church in her liturgy.

The opening reading today is an evaluation of Wisdom as an essential factor in our lives:

Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth;
think of the Lord in goodness
and seek him with sincerity of heart,
because he is found by those who do not put him to the test
and manifests himself to those who do not distrust him.

‘Righteousness’, also translated as ‘justice’ or ‘uprightness’ (from the Greek, dikaiosune), exists when there is perfect harmony in both thought and deed with the known will of God as expressed in the Law or in the injunctions of one’s conscience. We see this in Jesus as he prays in the garden to his Father:

…not my will but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)

Perfect uprightness, then, is when God’s will and mine are in such harmony that I not only submit my will to God’s, but where my will and God’s will totally coincide. I want what God wants.

The author speaks to the “rulers of the earth”. Later on in the book, he will imply that he is Solomon, renowned for his wisdom, speaking to his fellow-kings. This, of course, is just a literary device. In fact, he is addressing his fellow Jews in Alexandria, who are threatened by the ‘unrighteousness’ of their gentile neighbours.

The writer tells us:

…seek him with sincerity of heart…

‘Seeking God’ in order to ‘find him’ is a recurrent admonition in both prophetic and wisdom literature. Another version of this is found in the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
(Matt 5:8)

And that is the meaning of ‘simplicity’ here. It does not imply ‘naïveté’, but a vision that is clear and not cluttered by distorting factors.

For perverse thoughts separate people from God,
and when his power is tested, it exposes the foolish…

Perverse thoughts are the opposite of that simplicity of heart because they cut people off from God. And ‘power’ confounds the stupid. That is the power of God which, if challenged by rebellious acts, confounds the stupid because only the stupid would do such a thing. In the course of the book, the author will identify the power of God with God’s Spirit and Wisdom, which, for him, are interchangeable terms. In the gospel, too, the ‘Reign of God’ which Jesus put at the heart of his teaching is not the power of a secular ruler, but the power of Wisdom.

…wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul
or dwell in a body enslaved to sin.

Wisdom and sin are incompatible. No truly wise person, whose wisdom comes from God, who is Wisdom, can be in conflict with God. A person who deliberately does what is wrong is closing his mind to true wisdom. Nor can wisdom dwell in a body enslaved to sin. We do not hold that the body is evil in itself, a principle strongly held by the New Testament. However, it may become the instrument of sin and thus dominate the soul. In John’s Gospel Jesus says:

Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

Paul, too, speaks of the struggle between the “flesh” and his “inner self” (see Rom 7:14-24).

From Wisdom:

For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit
and will leave foolish thoughts behind
and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.

If we are under the influence of the ‘holy spirit’ of Wisdom, we will avoid all deceitfulness, which is the direct opposite of the ‘simplicity of heart’, that transparency which is the path to ‘uprightness’. We will avoid all ‘unintelligent thoughts’, which, by definition are not guided by wisdom. On the other hand, wisdom is blocked once vice is allowed to take over.

For wisdom is a kindly spirit,
but it will not free blasphemers from the guilt of their words,
because God is witness of their inmost feelings
and a true observer of their hearts and a hearer of their tongues.

‘Wisdom’ is, of course, friendly to humanity, because to be truly wise is to be in close harmony with God, and that is what our whole being is made for. When our lives are guided by wisdom, then we become the kind of people that God intended us to be. As wisdom grows, we too grow more and more into his image.

On the other hand, Wisdom:

…will not free blasphemers from the guilt of their words…

The blasphemer is one who speaks or acts in a way derogatory to God and all that God stands for. To behave in such a way is to alienate one from the God in whose image we are called to live. And there is no escape from this:

…because God is witness of their inmost feelings and a true observer of their hearts and a hearer of their tongues.

In the passage from Wisdom, for the word translated as ‘soul’, the author actually used the traditional word, ‘kidneys’. In the ancient world, the kidneys—and not the heart—were considered the centre of the emotions and instinctive impulse. On the other hand, the ‘heart’ was the seat of the activity of intellect and will. Where we tend to say ‘heart and mind’, they would say ‘kidneys and heart’. Hence, in the ancient world, ‘heart’ and ‘kidneys’ were frequently linked to signify all the inner forces of the human person.

In the concluding sentence of the reading we are told that:

…the spirit of the Lord has filled the world
and that which holds all things together knows what is said…

The ‘spirit of the Lord’, another name for the ‘wisdom of God’ fills the whole world, because he created that world, and wherever creation is, God’s wisdom is immanent there, giving it and conserving it in existence. It is that Wisdom or Spirit which “holds all things together” and hence “knows what is said”. The Wisdom or Spirit links all things so intimately that He is immediately aware of every word uttered. The liturgy of Pentecost adapts this text to the ‘gift of tongues’, where, after the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, everyone could understand what they were saying.

God sees deep into our inmost self, into our heart and overhears all that we say. For God’s spirit, the source of wisdom, penetrates the whole world and knows all. Wisdom is our sharing in that knowledge and insight of God into things.

Both the transcendence and the immanence of God are implied in the whole passage. God’s transcendence means that he is far above and beyond all the capacity of the human mind to grasp. That is the meaning of the Incarnation, by which in the humanity of Jesus, we can get a dim glimpse of what God is like as expressed through Jesus’ way of living his human life. But the fullness of God’s being is something that we cannot grasp in the humanity of Jesus. That will have to wait for the Beatific Vision.

God’s immanence speaks of his deep presence in every created thing. This is not to be confused with pantheism, which believes that everything is God. Some have come up with another term ‘panentheism’, i.e. God’s creative, transforming and loving presence in everything. We need to keep both God’s transcendence and immanence in mind when we try to understand his nature, but a full understanding will never be reached in our present life.

Also, we must not confuse wisdom with intelligence or having encyclopaedic knowledge. It is not a question of knowing much. To know the Catechism of the Catholic Church by heart and to be able to enunciate every doctrinal statement with perfect accuracy does not constitute wisdom. Nor does impeccable orthodoxy equip one with wisdom. Rather it is the ability to see all things in their proper relationship to each other and to see where we ourselves fit into the whole picture and, of course, to see it all in the light of God.

As we go through life, it will be a constantly changing picture. It is a gift which began to flow into us at our confirmation, but it never ceases to call for a further deepening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

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

Jesus answers them very bluntly:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Commentary on Luke 7:1-10

After he had finished the Sermon on the Plain (although we do not necessarily have to think it represents teachings all given at one time), Jesus went into Capernaum, the base from which he operated when in Galilee. Almost immediately, he is met with a request for healing, but this one is somewhat different. It will set the stage for developments which will take place and be described later in the Acts of the Apostles (also written by Luke).

The story concerns the slave of a centurion. A centurion was an army officer with—as his rank indicates—one hundred men under him. He was presumably attached to the Roman garrison in the town or one of Herod Antipas’ forces. The Roman military, in general, had a reputation for cruelty and brutality. However, those mentioned in the Gospel do not appear in a bad light. This is a good example of the danger of stereotyping any group of people—something we are all very easily prone to do.

He was not necessarily a Roman, but he was certainly not a Jew. He was a gentile outsider. His slave, who was very dear to him, had fallen seriously ill. This, in turn, implies he treated his slave well. Undoubtedly, he had heard the stories of what Jesus had done by way of healing and wondered if his slave could also be helped.

However, as an outsider he did not dare to approach Jesus personally. He sent a delegation consisting of Jewish town elders. These are not the ‘elders’ mentioned during Jesus’ passion,but simply respected members of the local Jewish community. In Matthew’s account, the centurion approaches Jesus himself. Luke, in having him go through influential Jewish friends, makes it sound more plausible.

They apparently were only too willing to help because they said he was very friendly to the Jews and had even built a synagogue for them. The stage is being set for the story of Cornelius, also a soldier and the first gentile Christian, in the Acts of the Apostles (see Acts 10:1).

While Jesus was on his way to the house, the centurion immediately sent word that it was not necessary for Jesus to come personally. As a friend of Jews, he knew that a devout Jew, and especially a rabbi, could not enter the house of a Gentile. He did not want to be a source of embarrassment for Jesus.

The centurion said:

I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…

We now use these words every time we prepare to approach the table of the Eucharist—just as the centurion felt unworthy to be approached by Jesus. He knew that Jesus had only to say a word and his slave would be made whole again.

The centurion recognised the very special authority that Jesus had, an authority, in some respects, not unlike his own as an army officer:

…I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.

Jesus is “amazed” at the man’s faith, saying:

I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

Only twice in the Gospel is Jesus described as being amazed. In this reading, it is caused by the faith of a Gentile; the other time was when Jesus experienced the unbelief of his townspeople in Nazareth (Mark 6:6).

When the delegation returned to the centurion’s house, they found that the slave was totally well again.

What strikes one so strongly in this story is the character of the centurion who contradicted every stereotype of the Roman soldier which the average person in Palestine would have had. He is kind and caring of his slave. He has contributed to the building of the local synagogue. He is extremely sensitive to Jewish customs and does not embarrass Jesus by approaching him directly. And, when Jesus offers to go to his house, he says that it is not necessary. He knows that Jesus, as a Jew, would become unclean by entering a gentile house. He is a good example how wrong we can be in generalising about certain kinds or classes of people.

He also clearly illustrates how a Gentile could be, as the early Church only gradually discovered, a worthy person to belong to the Christian community. In fact, this story prepares the way for Luke’s later account of the centurion, Cornelius, being received as the first gentile member of the Christian community (see Acts chap 10).

The key factor, of course, in this healing story is the faith of the Gentile, a faith which Jesus said he had never encountered even among many of his own people. Beginning with Cornelius, this experience will be repeated in the early Church as the first Christians, all Jews, begin to realise that the Gentiles too are being called to follow Christ and that their Spirit-filled faith can be as strong as that of any of them.

For us today it is a reminder that Jesus can reveal himself to the most unlikely persons and that we must never presume that a person is unfit for the Christian life based on past behaviour or any other characteristics. God can, and does call anyone. Let us, too, follow the example of the centurion in our confidence in God’s healing power in our lives.

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Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:1-8

Paul continues his advice to his young colleague and companion, Timothy. Today he urges that prayers of petition, intercession and thanksgiving be made for people everywhere, but especially for those in authority and government.

According to the New American Bible:

“This marked insistence that the liturgical prayer of the community concern itself with the needs of all, whether Christian or not, and especially of those in authority, may imply that a disposition existed at Ephesus to refuse prayer for pagans. In actuality, such prayer aids the community to achieve peaceful relationships with non-Christians (v 2) and contributes to their salvation, since it derives its value from the presence within the community of Christ who is the one and only Saviour of all (vv 3-6). The vital apostolic mission to the Gentiles concerning Christ’s purpose of the universal salvation should be reflected in the prayer of the community (v 7) which should be unmarred by internal dissension (v 8; see Matt 5:23)”.

Paul urges Timothy that:

…supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone…

He includes kings and others in authority, so that the Christians may be able to:

…lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

Although it looks like a very ordinary prayer, the end may reflect some apprehensions about future developments.

Anyone who reads the Acts of the Apostles knows just how much trouble the Christians experienced at the hands of civil and religious authorities. But it is possible that the words were written when the madman Nero was emperor. He would unleash a ferocious attack on the Christians. And both Peter and Paul were to lose their lives as martyrs under this crazed ruler.

But rather than subject rulers to abuse or retaliatory action, Paul urges that prayers be said for them. Paul’s teaching is also in line with the advice that we saw from Jesus in a recent Gospel reading about loving those who hate and persecute us and to pray for them (see Matt 5:43-48).

At the same time, Paul believed that generally legal authorities should be obeyed and respected. He told the Romans:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval, for it is God’s agent for your good. (Rom 13:1-4)

Sometimes, of course, doing “what is good” may mean not obeying an authority and calling for civil disobedience.

Paul tells Timothy to pray with all ‘godliness’. ‘Godliness’, together with ‘godly’, is a key word in the Pastoral Letters and occurs eight times in this Letter, once in 2 Timothy and once in Titus, but nowhere else in the writings of Paul. It implies a good and holy life, with special emphasis on its Source, a deep reverence for God.

To pray in this way is right and acceptable to God our Saviour, who wants every person to be saved and reach the full knowledge of truth. The two elements here are really complementary, two sides of the same coin. To be ‘saved’ is to become the whole person that God wants one to be, and central to that wholeness is the grasp and acceptance of what is fully true. The Way of Jesus is a way to wholeness and the Way of Jesus is Truth and Life. But wholeness and truth are never fully in our grasp. To get there is the goal of our whole lifespan.

That God wants all to experience this wholeness, sometimes referred to as ‘salvation’ or ‘redemption’, is surely the only satisfactory meaning that can be given to the death of Jesus, who died for every single person. It helps to counteract the ‘selective salvation’ of some who claim that God has decided whom he will save and who will be rejected. These people appeal to words of Paul in the Letter to the Romans:

So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses….Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?
(Rom 9:18,21)

This is not at all to say that God predestines us to salvation or damnation, but only that some by their behaviour call out the mercy of God and others bring about their rejection by their behaviour. God wants all to be saved, but no one is forced to accept salvation. It is a gift and a grace offered to all, but not necessarily accepted by all.

Because, as Paul continues:

For there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself as a ransom for all…

That there is only one God is the basic belief of Judaism, confessed every day by devout Jews in the Shema prayer (Deut 6:4). The Greek word for ‘ransom’ (antilutron) was used most commonly to describe the price paid to redeem a slave. Similarly, Christ paid the ransom price of his own life to free us from the slavery of sin. This was the greatest love that a person can show, and:

…this was attested at the right time.

By his willingness to die for the whole human race, Christ showed the human race that God wanted everybody to be saved. He was the Father’s ‘witness’ all through his life to the love of God for all of us, but never so supremely as at the moment of his dying on the cross. The Greek word for ‘witness’ is the same as for ‘martyr’ (martus). Jesus is the Supreme Witness, the Supreme Martyr.

Now Paul has been appointed “herald and apostle” of this great message from God made in and through Jesus, and has become a teacher to the Gentiles “in faith and in truth”. A herald is one given the authority to make an important public proclamation. In his book, Models of the Church, then Father (ultimately Cardinal) Avery Dulles SJ lists one of the models as “Church as Herald”. The mission of Paul has been passed on to all of us baptised. It is something we have to do both collectively and individually. And what Paul has been called on to testify is that, through his death, Christ has bridged the gap between God and humanity and made salvation available to every person.

Finally, Paul tells them that he desires:

…that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

He asks that they lift up their hands reverently in prayer, with no anger or feuding. A feuding community does not provide a conducive environment for prayer.

The next verses of the letter will not be read in our liturgy. They deal with the very submissive role that Paul says women are supposed to accept in the prayer assembly. Thankfully, we have made some progress in this area, but we are not the whole way there yet for full recognition and integration.

So, the reading is telling us that the true Christian spirit is not to rid the world of those who are the enemies of Christianity. When we pray, it is not to ask God to punish or destroy our enemies (as was sometimes done in the Old Testament), but rather to pray that they may change and see things differently, i.e. see things in God’s way, and become faithful to truth, love and justice.

We, as Christians, are bold enough to think that in the message of Jesus, we are on the path of truth, and the lived experience of the Christian life, especially that of the saints, bears it out. This was what motivated Paul to be:

…a herald and an apostle.

We, too, are called to the same task.

Let us remember too, not just during Mass, but very regularly to pray for others, especially those whom we see as a source of trouble in our lives, people we do not like and who do not like us, people who seem to ‘have it in for us’—difficult superiors or relatives or work colleagues.

Praying in all sincerity that God will shower them with his love, his grace and blessings can really bring about a change in them. This has been attested to again and again.

Even more importantly, it changes us. It is difficult to hate a person you are continually praying for. It helps to dissipate anger and brings a special kind of peace. It changes the way we relate to them. And it is a relatively easy thing to do. Try it!