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Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:4-11

Today’s reading is part of Paul’s defence of his behaviour and of his credentials with the Christian community in Corinth. However, as often happens, it leads him into making statements which go far beyond his own personal interests and leave us with ideas providing much material for theological and spiritual reflection.

In the verses immediately preceding our reading, Paul has just said that one of his main credentials are the Christians of Corinth themselves.

You are our letter of commendation written on our hearts, known and read by all.

And ultimately he now says that all the credit for what has been achieved in Corinth comes not from Paul himself but from God.

He is the one who has give us the qualifications to be the administrators of this new covenant.

Paul has not appointed himself; it God in Jesus who has called him. And this “new covenant” is not of a written law, but of the Spirit. It is a covenant not confined to a legal document but is the living testimony of the Corinthians themselves.

And, perhaps in a remark aimed at some of his more legalistic critics, he affirms that:

…the written letters bring death, but the Spirit gives life.

It is a remark that should be engraved on all our hearts. Again and again, it has been the lists of laws and rules that has often been the kiss of death for Christian communities, and it is a problem which continues to bedevil us today. For Paul, to cling tenaciously to the letter of the Law is to die, to atrophy.

Paul’s confidence is grounded in his sense of a God-given mission. His qualifications come entirely from God’s calling. Paul is now living in a new covenant, characterised by the Spirit, which gives life. The term ‘new covenant’ comes from Jeremiah:

The days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. This is the covenant I will make…after those days. I will place my law within them, and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:31-33)

And he goes on in words that must have been very provocative for some of his more conservative hearers:

…if there was so much brightness accompanying the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai, such that the people could not look directly at the shining face of Moses, what brightness must accompany the giving of the Spirit?

Paul’s words here seem directed against individuals who appeal to the glorious Moses and fail to perceive any comparable glory either in Paul’s life as an apostle, or in the Gospel he preaches. He asserts in response that Christians have a glory of their own that far surpasses that of Moses. Not so much because of who they are, but because of the message which inspires their lives.

He refers to the Old Law, carved on tablets of stone, as a “ministry of death”. He is speaking of the Mosaic law in its limitations. It leads to death rather than life, to condemnation rather than reconciliation. For its defendants, it was “glorious”, as indicated by the shining face of Moses. Paul does not deny that, but asserts that its glory was only temporary and fades in the face of Jesus’ ministry of life. The glory of the new reduces the former glory to no glory at all.

If there was any splendour in administering condemnation, there must be very much greater splendour in administering justification.

This is the difference between the law and the Spirit. The law tends to bring judgement on people, but the Spirit gives life and renewal. The law points out the limits for people’s behaviour – ‘Don’t do this’, ‘Don’t do that’. The Spirit calls forward to a much deeper level of living.

If the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory.

The Law was a complex of things that must be done, and even more things that must not be done. The “ministry of righteousness” we find in the teaching of Jesus is inspiration continually to reach beyond ourselves. It is the difference between the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. In the fact, the Law, which seemed such a great thing at the time, has now been surpassed by a far more inspirational vision.

Jesus said that he had not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it. In doing so, he simply left it behind.

For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.

It is that Spirit which Paul wants the Corinthians to experience rather than go back to the old days of blindly following a legalistic system, whose observance was often measured by what could be seen externally. The Law leads to rigidity and stagnation, the Spirit to spontaneity and creativity.

What Paul said then is equally true for us now. There is a certain tempting security in following a set of do’s and don’ts which some people are tempted to follow, but it leads ultimately to stagnation, and often to a not very attractive self-righteousness. It is the Spirit that gives life and brings people together in love, unity and harmony. That is the only way that the Kingdom can be built.

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Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:18-22

It seems that Paul has incurred a certain amount of criticism from the Corinthians and is coming to his own defence. In the verses just preceding today’s reading, he admits that he had intended paying them a double visit. On his way to Macedonia, he intended passing through Corinth and then pass through Corinth again on his way back. He did not do this, and it seems he was accused of being two-faced, of being a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ person at the same time. Feelings seem to have been so strong against Paul that he had to deal with the problem at a distance through letters and delegations (internal conflicts among Christians are nothing new!).

Unable to deny the change in plans, Paul nonetheless asserts the firmness of the original plan and claims that it does not indicate in any way a lack of constancy in his behaviour and work. He grounds his defence in God himself, who is utterly firm and reliable. So he claims that this quality can expect to be found in varying degrees in all those who are associated with God. Christ, Paul and the Corinthians all participate in analogous ways in the constancy of God.

So he goes to his own defence and denies that he was in any way two-faced:

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you is not “Yes and No.”

Like Jesus, his Lord, he claims that he together with his missionary companions, Timothy and Silvanus, were never anything but ‘Yes’.

However many God’s promises are, they are always an unequivocal ‘Yes’—not ‘No’ or ‘Maybe’. Similarly, an ‘Amen’ (‘So be it’) from Paul and his helpers goes through Jesus to God for his glory. The real source of Paul’s security in the Corinthians and the one who anointed him and his companions for their work is the same God. Their guarantee of that is their total endorsement of Jesus.

In turn he says:

…it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, who has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

The Corinthians should be assured, then, that his failure to make the promised visit was not due to any insincerity on Paul’s part.

We might note that a number of the terms in the passage, which appear related only in concept in Paul’s Greek or an English translation, would be variations of the same root in a Semitic mind, such as Paul’s. These include the words ‘yes’, ‘faithful’, ‘amen’, ‘gives us security’, ‘faith’, and ‘stand firm’.

Integrity is an essential quality in our Christian life:

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

People need to be confident that what they see in us and hear from us comes from deep within us. Paraphrasing the slogan, we should be able to say of ourselves, “What you see is what there is”. Falsehood or hypocrisy of any kind will seriously diminish the effectiveness of our Christian witness.

Parents and teachers and others responsible for the formation of the young have a special responsibility here. We are not to be like the Pharisees who teach one thing and do differently.

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Commentary on Matthew 5:33-37

Today’s third example from the Sermon on the Mount is of Jesus’ ‘filling out’ the meaning of the Law based on the instruction, saying:

You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.

In the Book of Numbers we read:

When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. (Num 30:2)

Jesus goes far beyond this requirement. He simply tells us to stop making oaths altogether. The true follower of Christ does not need to take oaths or to swear on anything—however sacred—to guarantee the truth of his words. Jesus says:

Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

The Christian should be a person of known integrity. He can be taken at his word and no further guarantee is required. It is nice to be known as such a person. Truth should be our second name.

Sometimes, of course, people may not be entitled to the whole truth. In fact, honour may require us even to sacrifice our life rather than reveal something that might put another person in danger, but we should never be guilty of positively deceiving another.

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Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Paul continues in his own defence. If his behaviour seemed objectionable, it was simply because he was acting in and through the Lord. But he speaks in a spirit not of antagonism, but of reconciliation. He tells the Corinthians of the force that is behind everything he does and says:

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

Christ’s love for us was so great that he gave his life so that we might have life. He said:

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

But our response to that is for each one of us to die to all self-seeking and, like Christ and with Christ, give our lives in love for others. This is precisely what Paul is trying to do.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way.

The death of the man Jesus has produced a whole new way of seeing other people. A natural or spontaneous way of seeing people is replaced by a new way according to the Spirit. In another context, Paul speaks of how Jesus was seen by Jews and Gentiles as someone who was weak, powerless, foolish and mortal but, to those with the eyes of faith, we see the wisdom, the power and the life of God. The paradox can be seen in himself. He is filled with the glory of Christ and yet appears so weak and vulnerable.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!

Rabbis used to speak of a “new creation” to describe the effect of a proselyte or convert entering the Jewish faith, or of the remission of sins on the Day of Atonement. The “new things” that have come are the new covenant which Jesus has inaugurated. The person baptised into the Christian faith and who lives according to the Gospel becomes, in a real sense, a new person, driven by a new vision of life.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

God does not count our wrongdoings. By responding to him in love we are seen as justified in God’s sight, and this contrasts with the covenant that condemned.

This is Paul’s way of expressing the mission Jesus gave to his disciples after the Resurrection:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. (John 20:23)

and

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

The mission of the Kingdom is bring the people of the world together in truth, love, justice and peace. It is not just a question of ‘converting’ people to our ‘religion’, but ultimately of bringing them back into the loving arms of God. That is what life is about.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.

Paul sees himself as an ambassador of God’s reconciliation and, as God’s emissary, he begs the Corinthians to become reconciled to God.

For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is a very striking phrase, not to be taken literally. But in dying as a criminal on the cross and among sinners, he seemed to be one of them, but in fact it was he who liberated us from sin—especially our own sin—and numbered us among God’s own people. Similarly, in Galatians we read:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”… (Gal 3:13)

And in Romans:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…
(Rom 8:3)

Paul does not deny that he has perhaps behaved in ways which angered some of the Corinthian Christians, perhaps the Jews among them most of all, but he sees no point in carrying on a vendetta. In the spirit of Christ, the only way forward is for peace and reconciliation.

Perhaps we could see if we are in a similar situation right now and how we can go about bringing healing to strained relationships. And, in general, our mission as Christians is to be agents of reconciliation wherever we find ourselves—again because:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

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Commentary on Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

Some important issues are raised in today’s readings. The Gospel consists of three separate pieces, but they are in fact closely linked with each other and with the First Reading.

The disciples are not at all happy because they saw a man—who was not a disciple—cast out evil spirits. They are obviously quite jealous. They realise that they are in quite a privileged position in being closely associated with Jesus. They have even been given the privilege of sharing Jesus’ powers of healing and driving out evil spirits.

Now they see a complete stranger, one who has nothing to do with their Master, doing the same thing. He may even be using the name of Jesus to exorcise. They are indignant; they are angry. They even try to stop the man—stop him from doing a good thing.

But Jesus tells them:

Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.

It is very easy for a chosen group to become elitist, to claim for itself a monopoly of doing good.

Where is God?
We Christians believe that the Church is God’s special way of revealing himself to the world. But we really cannot go on to claim that, therefore, God is only to be found in the Church—that in our Church alone is there Truth and Goodness. To be honest, we have tended in the past to give that impression.

Within the Church, too, there have always been groups—and they are still among us—that feel they have something that no one else has. These people seem to think that only they are in possession of God’s Truth; that only among their ranks can people be ‘saved’. They often exert a good deal of their energies trying to prove that other groups or even the rest of the Church is deeply in error.

But if that were the case, then millions of people would be excluded from knowing or loving God, or from doing his will. Should we say, for instance, because the majority of people in Asia or Africa are not Christian, that they have no hope in life, that they are all wicked people, condemned to eternal damnation?

A little experience of mixing with non-Christians in any society soon tells us that God is doing his work through all kinds of people. Perhaps those people believe in another religion or belong to no recognized religious grouping. Yet, they believe—in a way that can shame us Catholics—in the importance of truth, justice, love, service, freedom, peace and non-violence.

Good people everywhere
In any government there are many good, dedicated and patently honest people who really are public servants in the truest sense of the words. Similarly, there are outstanding doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen and other types of workers who are sincerely ‘in search of excellence’ and have a true ‘passion for excellence’. There are many in our society committed to improving the quality of life for everyone. During the many catastrophes—natural and man-made—that have struck our own and other parts of the world, we find people of faith and of no faith donating very large sums of money.

Every year at fund-raising events, thousands of people come to help welfare and charity services run by the Catholic Church or by other religious groups, irrespective of their own religions convictions:

For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. (Mark 9:41)

These people often give to us Christians—and through us to the needy—far more than a cup of cool water. Surely God is present and working through all such people. And we can be sure that God will reach them in his own way.

What is of greater relevance to us is whether we Christians are really doing God’s work. Just because we have the name of Christian is no guarantee that we are.

Keeping people away from God
Today’s Gospel moves on to a much more relevant problem as far as we Christians are concerned. There is a severe warning against those who prevent people from coming closer to God. It is regarded by Jesus as a most serious form of sinfulness.

The word ‘scandal’ originally meant a stumbling block—a large stone in a person’s way that causes him or her to trip and fall. Am I a stumbling block to those who might be in search of Jesus or his Church? For instance, would any person want to be a Christian because they know me? What kind of impression of Christian life or of the Church do I present to others?

Have we not heard people say, “I would not want to be a Christian. They are just like everyone else I know: they gossip, they tell lies, they cheat, they are greedy for money, they take revenge…” Non-Christians often have strange ideas about God, about Jesus, about Mary, about the Church. Where did they get those ideas from? What kind of image of Jesus do we present as parents, as teachers, as employers or superiors, as working colleagues?

Where there is love, there is God
So today’s readings are fundamentally saying two things. First, on the one hand, we have to learn to recognise that God can do his work through all kinds of people. St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) said:

Wherever there is a caring [agape]-love, there is God.

Christians clearly have no monopoly on loving others. And we can add that wherever there is true justice being practised, there is God; wherever there is true freedom being promoted or defended, there is God; wherever there is a person, perhaps a total stranger from another race or culture, who acts as a true brother or sister to me, there is God. And so it goes.

On the other hand, as a Christian, through my Baptism, I have been called—it is my vocation—to be for others another Christ. Far from being jealous of the good that others do, we need to hear the words of Moses today:

Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!

We may get some indication of where we stand if we listen carefully to the scathing words of James in the Second Reading. What are our attitudes to wealth and poverty? To luxury side by side with indigence? To the glaring inequities between countries’ standards of living?

I am called not only to be for myself a good person. I am called to reach out, to love, to be just to others, to be fully free with and for others, to be truly brother or sister. I am also called to be a prophet, to proclaim in words and actions that the Source of all love, justice, freedom and solidarity with others is a God who loves, who forgives and who wants all to share in a life that is enriched on every level.

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Matthew, who is called Levi by Mark and Luke, was a tax collector, a Jew working for the Roman colonising power. It is not surprising that Jews who did this work were objects of contempt (especially as the Romans did not collect tax from their own citizens). As recorded in today’s Gospel reading, Matthew left his business to become a disciple of Jesus, and indeed one of the Twelve Apostles.

Matthew is spoken of five times in the New Testament; first in Matthew (9:9), when called by Jesus to follow Him, and then four times in the lists of the Apostles, where he is mentioned in the seventh (Luke 6:15 and Mark 3:18), or eighth place (Matthew 10:3 and Acts 1:13). As the account in the three Synoptics is identical, it is presumed that Matthew and Levi refer to the same person, although this is disputed. Levi could have been his original Jewish name. This is indicated by Matthew’s Gospel referring to the tax collector as someone “named Matthew”. It was quite common for Jews to have two names. He is not mentioned in John’s Gospel.

From very early times, Matthew has been traditionally regarded as the author of one of the four Gospels, to which both Irenaeus and Papias, early Christian writers, give witness. This Gospel was written late in the 1st century and, based on similarity of material, is presumed to be dependent on Mark which is believed to have been the first Gospel to be written. It is a very Jewish work and is clearly directed to Jewish converts. The original is thought to have been written in Aramaic or Hebrew although we now only have the Greek version. Matthew’s Gospel (in contrast with Mark’s) concentrates a good deal on the teaching of Jesus and for that reason was used widely in the Church for catechetical teaching.

Each of the four evangelists is represented by a symbol taken from the Old Testament. Matthew is represented as a man. This is because the genealogy he places at the beginning of his Gospel speaks of the human ancestry of Jesus.

One tradition says he went to Ethiopia and preached the Gospel there, confirming his teaching with many miracles. Because of one of his greatest miracles—that of bringing back to life the king’s daughter—the king and his wife, together with the whole country became Christians. When the king died, his successor Hirtacus wished to marry Iphigenia, the daughter of the former king. But she had vowed her virginity to God and would not change. Because the vow had been taken through Matthew’s influence, Hirtacus had Matthew killed. It was believed that this happened on 21 September, hence the date of his feast.

However, the Martyrology of Jerome says he died at Tarrium in Persia, while other sources say it was at Tarsuana, east of the Persian Gulf. What are claimed to be his relics were brought to Salerno in Italy by Robert Guiscard from Finisterre in Brittany where it is said they had been originally brought from Ethiopia. Later, under Pope Gregory VII, they were transferred to the church dedicated to St Matthew.

In art, Matthew is represented as either an evangelist or an Apostle. As an evangelist he sits at a desk, writing his Gospel with an angel guiding his hand or holding an inkwell. As an Apostle he is shown with the emblem of martyrdom—a spear or sword or lance. He may also be shown holding a money-bag, representing his original profession. In the later Middle Ages he may even be shown wearing glasses, to help read his accounts!

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Commentary on Wisdom 2:12,17-20; James 3:16—4:3; Mark 9:30-37

We are told in today’s Gospel that Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the northern province of Galilee but that he did not want people to know. As his public life goes into its final stages, Jesus spends more time with his disciples and less with the general public.

Today we hear him for the second time (there will be three altogether) warning his disciples of what is going to happen to him. He tells them that he will be handed over into the hands of men; that he will be put to death; and that he will rise again on the third day.

The first time Jesus told them this Peter reacted very strongly and Jesus reacted more strongly still. This time they are more cautious. They still do not understand what he means, but they do not dare to ask him; they don’t want to reveal their inability to see. We can sympathise with them.

Jesus, they have acknowledged, is the Messiah, the Anointed King of Israel. How then can he face a fate like this—and from some of his own people? And, further, they have seen all that he has been doing: healing the sick, bringing sinful people back to God, liberating people from evil powers. They have seen his popularity with the crowds who pursue him everywhere.

At the same time, of course, Jesus has been very outspoken. He has attacked what he regards as the hypocrisy of many religious leaders. He has criticised the over-legalistic interpretation of the Law and false ways of evaluating people’s goodness.

People we love to hate
He is running into a paradox of human living, namely, the hatred that the good person engenders. It is put so well in the First Reading:

Let us lie in wait for the righteous man…

And why?

…because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law
and accuses us of sins against our training.

Jesus annoyed many people because he opposed their way of life. He called them out for being false to the real meaning of their traditions and worshipping only with their lips, but with hearts far from God. While he hung on the cross they mocked him saying:

…let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. (Matt 27:42)

The First Reading mirrors this sentiment in mocking tones:

Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life,
for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

In their twisted thinking, they abuse him to see whether God was really with him:

Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how reasonable he is
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.

All of this was realised in Jesus. His gentleness and endurance and his love for us were proved beyond doubt. And he was looked after, though not in the way they anticipated. He was allowed to drink the cup of suffering to the very dregs, dying a most awful death. But he persevered to the moment of that final surrender into the Father’s hands, saying:

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit… (Luke 23:46)

and

It is finished. (John 19:30)

It was the moment of glory, the moment of exaltation, of being lifted up to the right hand of the Father, leading the way for us to follow.

All of this the disciples at this stage do not understand, but they will in time. Not only that, many of them will follow in his footsteps and be themselves the victims of hatred and recrimination.

The key word is “delivered” or “handed over” (Greek, paradidomi; Latin tradere).* It is a theme word running through the New Testament. John the Baptist was handed over to Herod to be executed. Jesus was handed over by Judas to his fellow-Jews. They, in turn, handed him over to the Romans they hated. Later, the disciples themselves will be handed over to kings and rulers. And, in every Eucharist, the Body of Jesus is handed over for us to break and share together.

What were they talking about?
Later, Jesus and his group arrived at Capernaum in Galilee. While they were in the “house” he asked them a question. This “house” is mentioned several times in Mark without being identified. It is the place where Jesus seems to stay whenever he is in the town. Is it the house of Peter or of someone else? It does not really matter. It is, basically, the place where Jesus gathers with his disciples. It is a symbol of the Church, of every house where small communities of Christians used to gather in the name and in the company of their Lord and as they still do today.

Jesus asked them a question:

What were you arguing about on the way?

We have another key word here: ‘way’ or ‘road’ (Greek, hodos). Every time they are travelling with Jesus they are “on the road”. Because Jesus himself is the Road: he is the Way, he is Truth and Life. So they are being asked what they were doing while on the Road.

They refused to answer and kept silent because they were ashamed. It was not the kind of talk suited to people on the Way. Why? Because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. But why were they ashamed? Jesus had not said anything yet. It has been suggested that, since Jesus has already told them twice that he is going to die, then—unthinkable though it was—it might be true. In that case, who would become the leader of their group? When Jesus asked them what they had been talking about, they could hardly say, “Well, since you are going to be killed in the near future, we were wondering which of us should take over.”

Last of all and servant of all
However, as usual, Jesus knew exactly what was going on in their minds. He sat down and spoke just to the inner circle of the Twelve, the future leaders of the community:

Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

Once again he throws an idea at them which is in total contradiction to everything they had ever been told. To be first is to be on top, to be in control, to have people doing what you want them to do. And here Jesus is saying true greatness is in being the servant or slave of all.

Judging by our behaviour, many of us Christians have difficulties in accepting this view. In the family, whom do we regard as first? Who is the one who serves the family? Parents? Children? People we employ to help out in the household? When are parents really great? When they are dominating and manipulating, or when they are building up their children and treating them with the deepest respect?

It may happen that, in fact, because of attitudes and behaviour, household employees are really the great ones in the family compared to the parents. Such individuals may earn more respect from the children than is accorded to the parents. In the school, whom do we regard as first and whom the least? Students? Teachers? Principal? Cleaning staff? Who is serving whom? Who is the greatest person in any school? How is the greatness judged? Who contributes most? It is a question that cannot be answered a priori, but only on the basis of how individuals behave and relate to each other in the school society.

In the Church whom do we regard as first? Pope? Bishop? Priest? Religious? Lay person? Men, women? The pope is called the “servant of the servants of God”. We are all supposed to be serving, whatever our position or role. Is that what we are doing? Who are the greatest ones in our Church today, in our diocese, in our parish? Again, on what basis do we make that judgement?

In society, are people expected to serve me and provide me with all the things I want? Or am I expected to serve them? How is this done? What should my attitude be to the people who are part of my everyday life—those with whom I am in direct contact and others, whom I do not meet but whose actions (or non-actions) affect my life?

Example of a child
At this point in the story, Jesus pulls over a young child and puts him standing in the middle of the group. He says:

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

The child here represents a person who has no power, no say, no influence—a person who can easily be controlled, abused or neglected, and who has little redress.

But Jesus says, to accept and to welcome such a person is to welcome Him. To ‘welcome’ is to respect and to serve, in the way a host welcomes a guest, even a stranger. It is to be concerned about the well-being of another person; the focus is on them rather than on oneself and one’s imagined dignity and status.

The child in this Gospel represents all those in our society who are powerless and easily manipulated, as well as those who are easily abused, neglected and marginalised. Examples certainly include the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly, the immigrant and refugees fleeing from oppression.
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*In some translations “betrayed” is also used.

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Commentary on 1 Timothy 6:13-16

Today we have our last reading from this letter. It is an appeal for Timothy to consecrate his life totally to God and Jesus Christ, in the way that Jesus proclaimed his messianic mission before Pilate. Truly, a model for us to follow. The reading is actually an immediate continuation from yesterday’s reading.

As the Letter comes to an end, Timothy is once more reminded by Paul:

…to keep the commandment without spot or blame…

Paul makes his statement solemnly:

In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession…

It was in the presence of Pilate that Jesus declared his royal messiahship-kingship and his office as revealer of Truth. He said to Pilate:

My kingdom does not belong to this world…Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. (John 18:36-37)

The mention of Pontius Pilate, as a public official, lends strength to the official tone of the witness. This is an example for Christians to follow, whether making a profession of faith at our Baptism or when faced with persecution. It is easy to make professions of faith in private.

In the last part of the reading, Paul’s charge to Timothy is presented as a doxology in praise of Christ, the Christ of the Second Coming. It may be inspired by a liturgical hymn and consists of scriptural phrases transposed into Hellenic language, the themes being that God is the only object of worship and no one may claim to fully understand the mystery that is God. Timothy is to:

…keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which he will bring about at the right time—
he who is the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
It is he alone who has immortality
and dwells in unapproachable light,
whom no one has ever seen or can see;
to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

“…at the right time…” – just as Jesus’ first coming occurred at the precise time God wanted (see Gal 4:4), so also his Second Coming will be at God’s appointed time.

Those who know their Handel will remember the Hallelujah chorus which sings majestically of the “King of kings and Lord of lords”. This phrase also appears in Revelation 19:16.

The phrase “…no one has ever seen or can see…” echos the statement in John’s Gospel (1:18):

No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Let us today also renew our total commitment to the King of kings and Lord of lords and work for the day when we will be invited to live with him in that now unapproachable light. We could do worse than follow some of the advice that Paul gives to Timothy in this Letter, especially if we have any pastoral responsibilities in our community.

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Commentary on Luke 8:4-15 Read Saturday of week 24 of Ordinary Time – Gospel »

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Commentary on Luke 8:1-3

This passage follows immediately from yesterday’s about the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. It is one of those summary passages describing in general terms the work of Jesus.

He is accompanied by the chosen Twelve, his cooperators in the preaching of the word and the establishing of the Kingdom. And it is precisely the Good News (the Gospel) about the Kingdom that they are preaching in word and demonstrating in practice.

What is noteworthy here—and it is unique to Luke—is the mention of many women also travelling in the company of Jesus. Some of them were women who had been healed of evil spirits. One is mentioned by name:

Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out…

The number seven is not to be taken literally, but indicates she had formerly been in a seriously immoral state. Mary of Magdala appears very prominently in John’s Gospel as someone very close to Jesus and he describes her as the first witness of the Resurrection. It is possible, too, that the “sinful woman” in the house of Simon the Pharisee was also in the group.

Some of the other women seem to be of more ample means and higher social rank. One of them was Joanna, the wife of King Herod’s steward. They helped Jesus and his disciples with their material needs. Once again, Jesus is not embarrassed to travel in the company of these women; nor are they uncomfortable in his.

We see here two roles being played by followers of Jesus. On the one hand are the Apostles whose function it is to proclaim the Gospel and establish the Kingdom by word and deed, by preaching and by the example of the communal and shared life they are leading.

The other role is that of disciples who are materially better off, and who support the work of proclaiming the Gospel by providing for the material and other needs of the evangelisers. Both roles are complementary and both, taken together, form the evangelising work of the Church.

A good example in our time are the Sisters of St Teresa of Calcutta (Missionaries of Charity), who would never be able to take care of the destitute dying without the generous help of many benefactors. And the same statement applies for many other voluntary groups involved in looking after the disadvantaged.