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Commentary on Judges 13:2-7,24-25

In the Bible, there are a number of incidences where elderly women who had never borne a child, through the intervention of God are blessed with a child, usually a son. Today’s First Reading recounts one of these—the birth of Samson.

What is special to all these stories is that the child to be born is given a very special role by God. It is as if to say that God had played a role with the mother in the birth of this child. He was, in a way, God’s child. And that is what we also see in today’s Gospel, which speaks about the circumstances in which the elderly Elizabeth is blessed with a son, who will be John the Baptist.

Today’s reading is from the Book of Judges. These ‘judges’ were really heroic figures from various Israelite tribes who were engaged in the struggle of the Israelites to establish their dominion over the land which they believed had been allotted to them by God. Not surprisingly, the present occupants of the territories were not too pleased and resisted strongly, with varying degrees of success and failure on both sides.

Our reading is concerned with one of these ‘judges’—Samson. Overall, he is presented as being physically very strong, but in other respects very weak, particularly where women were concerned. And it was a woman, the notorious Delilah, who would bring about his downfall. Nor, in spite of some successes, did he ever manage to free his country from the Philistine enemy. His exploits were more concerned with himself than with his people.

The Philistines, who will appear later in the story of David (remember, Goliath was a Philistine), were a non-Semitic people, possibly from Crete. They settled on the coastal plain of Palestine about the same time as the Hebrews were entering the land from the east. Conflict between them was inevitable.

In a way, Samson can be seen as a symbol of his people. The misdeeds of the Israelites are often pictured by the prophets in the light of their foolish pursuit of foreign women, some of ill-repute, and falling victim to them. During the Judges’ period, the people constantly prostituted themselves in worshipping Canaanite gods.

Samson was from the tribe of Dan. His story is told from birth to death. We are only concerned today with his birth. His father’s name was Manoah and he came from Zorah, in the territory of Dan (Dan was one of the twelve sons of Jacob). Manoah’s wife, whose name is not given, is “barren”—in the society of her time, the greatest curse a married woman could suffer.

She shares this fate with some other prominent women in the Old Testament—Sarah, the mother of Isaac; Rebecca, the mother of Jacob; Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel; and, of course, in today’s Gospel, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.

But it is then that “the angel of the Lord” appears to her. She hears the wonderful words:

…you shall conceive and bear a son.

These same words are repeated in the Gospel, and will be heard again during the Annunciation to Mary.

Samson’s mother is to prepare for his birth by not taking wine, or any food regarded as unclean. As a future liberator of his people, this son will be especially dedicated to the Lord. From his very conception he is to be regarded as a Nazirite. The word nazir in Hebrew means ‘consecrated’. A Nazirite was obliged to abstain from drinking wine or having his hair cut. In early times, the Nazirite vow was for life, but in later times it could be temporary, and its termination would be signified by the cutting of one’s hair. It is implied that Samson’s uncut hair is the source of his great strength, which is lost when it is cut by the treacherous Delilah.

When the child is born, his mother names him Samson, a word which means ‘sun’ or ‘brightness’. This could be an expression of joy over the birth of an unexpected child or refer to a nearby town, Beth Shemesh—‘house of the sun(-god)’.

The passage ends with the words:

The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

This final remark refers to his future feats of strength. Compare this with the words about Jesus after he had returned to Nazareth following his presentation in the Temple by Mary and Joseph:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor. (Luke 2:52)

Today, let us reflect on our own calling by God. Perhaps there was nothing very special about it. Yet, like John the Baptist, each of us has been called to be a forerunner of Jesus, to prepare the way for Jesus to come into other people’s lives, especially those who have not yet had the experience of knowing him.

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Commentary on Matthew 1:18-24

There were three stages for Jews getting married in Jesus’ time. First there was the engagement, then the betrothal, and finally the wedding. The betrothal was a serious commitment. It was already the first part of the marriage. There would be no sexual relationship, as the couple would not yet be living together, but it was a binding relationship. Normal married life began some months later when the husband took his betrothed into his home. To violate the betrothal by having sexual relations with another person was equivalent to adultery.

Imagine, then, the horrific dilemma of Joseph. He discovers that the woman to whom he is already betrothed, but with whom he has not consummated their relationship in marriage, is already pregnant. There could be only one explanation—she had been unfaithful and was having another man’s child. It was a very serious matter and, if brought out into the open, would have made Mary liable to death by stoning.

But Joseph was a “righteous man”. As a devout follower of the Mosaic Law, he would want to break the union with someone who had so seriously broken the Law. And yet, because he was such a good man, he did not want to expose her to a terrible punishment. In this, for his time and indeed for our own time, he shows extraordinary forbearance. Few men would be like Joseph and accept such a situation with such calmness and self-restraint. Most would find it a terrible blow.

It is at this point that there is divine intervention and God communicates the true situation to Joseph. He is assured that no other man is involved, and that Mary has conceived through the power of God’s Spirit. Joseph is further instructed to call the newborn child Jesus. Jesus, in Hebrew Joshua, had the meaning at this time of “Yahweh saves”. Jesus is so called because he will save his people from their sin.

And as Matthew likes to do, he shows that all this is in fulfilment of an Old Testament prophecy (following the Septuagint text of Isaiah):

Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel… (Is 7:14)

‘Immanuel’ means “God-is-with-us”. This will be re-echoed when, at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples just before he ascends to his Father:

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt 28:20)

Jesus remains with us forever.

Joseph, now at peace, took Mary to his home as his wife. Thus, there is no mistaking the origins of Jesus. He has a human mother, but a divine Father. He will be the perfect Saviour of his people—in a fully human person, the power of God himself will be at work.

God still lives with his people. And he does that through the Body of the Risen Jesus, the Church, the Christian community and its communities all over the world. Each one of us is called to be Immanuel. Through us people can meet God and hear the message of love and salvation, forgiveness and reconciliation. Let us renew our commitment to be Immanuel for the people in our lives.

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Commentary on Jeremiah 23:5-8

Today’s reading comes from one of three prose sermons which seem to originate either from the period of exile in Babylon or soon after the return to Jerusalem. After scolding Judah’s rulers for scattering Judah, in today’s passage God promises to establish an upright member, a “Branch”, of David’s line over a restored Israel.

‘Branch’ is used elsewhere as a messianic title. Zerubbabel, whose name means ‘branch/shoot of Babylon’, was one of the leaders in the return of the Jews from exile. And he was a descendant of David.

The Messiah, unlike any previous descendant of David, will be the ideal King. He will sum up in himself all the finest qualities of the best rulers, and infinitely more. He will rule responsibly before God as a real king and not as a puppet like King Zedekiah. He will be a true shepherd for his people, free of the corruption found in so many of Judah’s rulers. He will:

…deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

He will be called “The Lord is our righteousness”. This is in contrast with the present ruler, Zedekiah, whose name in Hebrew meant ‘the Lord [Yahweh] is my justice’. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon originally gave this name to Mattaniah when he was appointed king.

Zedekiah was the last king of Judah (597-587 BC). He was a tragic figure. He tried to enter into an alliance with surrounding peoples, including Egypt, to rebel against Babylon. But he suffered defeat and was led off to Babylon. Here his two sons were executed in his presence and then his own two eyes were gouged out. Although Zedekiah did not in any way live up to his name ‘the Lord is our righteousness’, the new Lord of Righteousness will bring many blessings to his people and give them all that they need to be truly God’s people.

A new era is on the way. People will no longer be thinking of God as the one who brought his people out of Egypt. Rather, they will think of him as the one who brought his people from their place of exile to live once more on their own soil. This will be the ‘New Exodus’, one of even greater significance than the earlier one. And it will not be complete until the Messiah comes and establishes the Kingdom of God, not only in Israel, but throughout the world—bringing true justice and peace to all.

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Commentary on Matthew 1:1-17

Perhaps this passage is regarded as one of the dullest Gospel readings of the year! It consists of a long list of names, many of which mean very little to most Christians. But it has one resounding message: Jesus fully entered our human condition, with all its virtues and vices.

One of the main purposes of Matthew’s Gospel, which was written for Jewish Christians by Jewish Christians, is to show the continuity of Jesus in the history and tradition of Israel. Jesus was no upstart; still less was he a rebel or a traitor. On the contrary, he was the natural development of the long process of God’s relationship with his people. Not only was he the natural development, he was the long-awaited climax. He was no less than the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed King of Israel.

Today’s passage from Matthew is the opening of his Gospel. It is introduced with the words:

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

These two names are the most significant in the family line. Jesus, as the Messiah—the Christ—will be a King in the line of David. And he is descended from Abraham to whom God had said:

…and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves… (Gen 22:18)

The genealogy is divided into three significant parts, each with fourteen generations. This is probably because the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in David’s name amounts to 14. The third and last list actually only contains 13 names. Perhaps Matthew meant Jesus’ name to be part of the list. After all, the genealogy of Jesus continues beyond him to his followers. Or perhaps a scribe somewhere along the line got his numbers mixed up; there is no way to know.

The first part is from Abraham down to David; the second, from David to the deportation to Babylon; and the third, from the deportation to Joseph and Mary. Of course, it is not a complete genealogy. The names mentioned all appear one way or another in the Hebrew Testament. There are four women mentioned—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Mary—each one of them an interesting character in her own right. There are also a number of scoundrels in the list. Even David, one of the most outstanding servants of God, was an adulterer and a murderer (apart from those he killed in war).

When the Son of God became a human being, he really did become one of us. The Gospel makes no effort to ‘sanitise’ his origins, or the members of his immediate family. There is no shortage of skeletons in Jesus’ cupboard. John said no less than the truth when he wrote:

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

As well, if Jesus was totally incarnated in the world so that he could communicate the message of God’s love to the world and for the world, then we too, must be totally incarnated. We are not true to our calling if we think that, in order to be true to Jesus, we have to separate ourselves from a material and sinful world. We cannot be the “salt of the earth” unless we are fully inserted into it. But this happens only when we also fully identify with the values and concerns of the Kingdom. Otherwise we are salt without taste.

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Commentary on Genesis 49:2,8-10

In today’s First Reading, Jacob is on his death bed and making his last statement to his family. It is the longest poem in Genesis. The reading is part of what is known as the ‘Blessings of Jacob’, although they are more like prophecies than blessings. This is especially true of the passages in today’s reading. And it is directed, not so much to the sons of Jacob, but more to the tribes who bore their name.

Although this passage ostensibly refers to Jacob’s immediate descendants, in fact, the final writing dates from the time of David (much later), with possibly some earlier elements contained in it. Its contents really concern the time of the Judges and the Kings. It was at this later time that it would have been inserted into the Genesis narrative. Put together from preexisting songs and sayings, it looks at the tribes of Israel in their early days in Canaan. It is put here to signify the closing of a historical period—that covered by the Book of Genesis.

Two of the tribes stand out—those of Judah and Joseph. Judah is seen as coming to dominate all the others, but not permanently:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him,
and the obedience of the peoples is his.

Another reading of “until tribute comes to him” in the original Hebrew text translates as “until he comes to whom it belongs”. This is a reference to the Messiah. Judah will be the one through whom the promises made to Abraham and Jacob will be fulfilled. Judah was the fourth born to Jacob’s wife Leah, and also the fourth son born to Jacob, but his three older brothers, for various reasons, lost their right to family leadership.

Judah is shown as preeminent over his brothers:

…your brothers shall praise you…your father’s sons [i.e. his brothers] shall bow down before you.

From the time of the second journey of Jacob’s sons to Joseph in Egypt, Judah acted as their spokesman. Judah, under the name of Ephraim, did in fact become the most influential of the northern tribes and would form the nucleus of the future kingdom of Israel. And through his descendant David, he would be an ancestor of Jesus—hence the purpose of today’s reading.

Judah is called a “lion’s whelp” (or “lion’s cub”) as a symbol of power, strength and courage. In later times, he is often pictured as a lion and, in Revelation (5:5), Jesus himself is called the “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”.

The meaning of the closing prophecy is obscure, but it is often read in a Messianic sense—fulfilled first of all in David, and ultimately in Christ, the Messiah. It is to Jesus Christ that the “sceptre”, the ruling power, ultimately belongs.

Both the First Reading and today’s Gospel, which contains Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, emphasise Jesus’ roots going back to the very beginnings of Israel. Jesus was a Jew through and through, and linked with many of the most significant characters in Israel’s turbulent history.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Child Jesus in Bethlehem, we need to remember that the content of today’s readings is an important aspect of the Incarnation. Jesus did not just appear as an isolated human being. He came from God, but he is also intimately and crucially linked with the history of his own people. And because of that, so are we.

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Commentary on Matthew 9:35—10:1,5,6-8

The promises of today’s First Reading are shown being fulfilled in the person of Jesus in the Gospel, and they are arranged in two sections.

First, Jesus is shown constantly on the move, teaching in synagogues all over the region, proclaiming the Good News of God’s reign coming among them and bringing healing to all who are sick and diseased. Matthew does not use the title of Good Shepherd for Jesus, but he does indicate the deep compassion of Jesus for all those who are harassed and depressed, people with no direction in their lives, who are like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is clearly the Shepherd who can lead them back to where they belong.

Second, Jesus then says to his disciples that there is a huge harvest waiting to be reaped. Up to this he has been working alone, but he needs help, especially after he is gone. There are very few people available to work in the harvest field. He then calls the Twelve and hands on to them his own powers to liberate people from evil powers and to heal all kinds of sickness.

The harvest is still great and the need for labourers is as great as ever. In asking the Lord to send labourers into the harvest, we have to ask ourselves what the role is for each one of us. It is not just a question of priests and religious. Jesus was not talking to priests and religious (there was no such thing as ‘religious’ at the time the Gospels were written), but to every one of his followers—to every one of us who has been baptised. Every one of us is being called to be a harvester. Each one of us can reach a corner of the harvest field that is accessible to no one else.

These include our family, neighbours, our work colleagues and others who come into our lives. I may be the only person who brings Jesus with his healing and compassion into someone’s life.

And what are we to do? We are to let people know that the Reign of God is very close, because God himself and Jesus are so close. Once we say yes to God and his Son, they become part of our lives. And we are to do the same work Jesus told his disciples to do:

• Cure the sick: by our sympathy and support, which can often add tremendously to the effects of any medical treatment.
• Raise the dead: clearly not literally. But there are many who are intellectually, emotionally or socially dead. They are physically alive, but they have stopped living meaningful lives. We can help them to find life again.
• Cleanse the lepers: all those people who are on the fringes of society, whom we neglect, ignore, despise, reject or avoid. There are the dropouts, those suffering from addictions (e.g. drugs, alcohol or pornography), the homeless, single mothers, ‘sex workers’, and others—we can let them know they are accepted and loved by God.
• Cast out demons: help people liberate themselves from the demons of fear, anger, hatred and violence; from drugs, alcohol, nicotine or sexual abuse (themselves and others); from greed for money, attention, status or the adulation of others.

There are so many people who need to hear and to experience the message of Christmas. And there are many, alas, for whom Christmas is bad news, a time of misery, depression and loneliness. Let’s work to change that.

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Frank Doyle SJ 1931 – 2011

Living Space is the area of the Sacred Space website where you will find commentaries on the daily scripture readings. These are written by the late Frank Doyle SJ unless other contributors are credited. (About Frank Doyle)

Using Living Space

You can access the current commentaries by using the Living Space calendar in the right column. This sidebar allows you to select readings from the coming days – with a few days in the past allowed for too. You will see this calendar on the right sidebar of all Living Space pages.

Please note that the calendar may differ from region to region and cannot take account of all the regional variations.

In general, the following commentaries are provided:

• Sundays: one commentary on all readings.
• Weekdays: separate commentaries on the first readings and gospel texts.
• Saints: separate commentaries on the saint and on the assigned readings.

Archives

The following lists can be found on the Living Space Archive page.

Index of commentaries on Gospel texts from the Gospels:

• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke
• John

Index of scripture texts for which commentaries are available:

• List of books of the bible in canonical order

Index of commentaries on texts according to the liturgical cycle:

• Year A – Matthew
• Year B – Mark
• Year C – Luke
• Feasts and Saints

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Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; John 17:11-19

The Gospel reading comes from Jesus’ long discourse at the Last Supper as found in John’s Gospel. It is part of the prayer that Jesus makes at the end of the discourse and is the part where he prays for his own disciples. He prays that they may be one as Jesus and his Father are one.

While he was still with them, he protected them, but now that Jesus is preparing to return to his Father, he prays that they, too, may share the joy that Jesus is going to experience. Jesus gave them the ‘word’ of the Father, the message of where true life was to be found and paradoxically, because of this, the world is full of hatred for them. It is because they do not identify with the spirit of the world any more than Jesus himself does.

At the same time, Jesus does not pray that they may be removed from the world, which needs so much to hear their message of life, but only that they be protected from the evil forces which pervade the world. And so Jesus prays that they may be consecrated in truth, the truth that comes from the Father and which has been mediated by Jesus.

And, with this protection, Jesus sends them out into the world in the same way that Jesus himself was sent into the world by the Father:

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

Cornelius and Cyprian lived in a world of division and hatred, both in the secular world and within the Church itself. They spent their lives bringing the truth of Christ to their world. They were attacked by members of their own Church and eventually fell victims of persecution by the forces of the emperors.

Our Church today still is the object of hatred and derision by anti-religious and secular forces and that is something we should be ready to expect. And it is not a sign that we should escape from that world, but rather stay within it and persevere both in word and action in communicating our message to create a world of love, service and sharing to replace one of hatred, domination and self-seeking.

In the First Reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Christians at Corinth, he speaks of the paradox of being a Christian missionary:

We have this treasure in clay jars…

The message of the Gospel and the vision of life that it communicates is a treasure, but it is brought to the world in very fragile vessels, our weak humanity.

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed…

And, Paul says:

…always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies..

Paul elaborates on this:

For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh.

This indeed is the paradox of the Christian witness. The Church finds life and gives life most effectively through those who sacrifice their lives for the Message of the Gospel. We see this happening even in our own time.

It is, of course, the reason we celebrate the memory of such people as we do today in the persons of Cornelius and Cyprian. But we just do not remember and admire. We are also to be inspired and emboldened to follow in their footsteps. It is those who are ready to let go of their human life who will find true life and pass it on to others.

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Apart from her being martyred at Syracuse in 304 AD during the persecution of Diocletian, there is very little certain known about Lucy. However, her cult began quite soon after her death and spread widely. An inscription dating from about the year 400 is to be found in Syracuse. Her name appears in the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Rite, also in the Ambrosian rites, as well as in the oldest Roman liturgical texts, in Greek liturgical books and in the marble calendar of Naples. Churches dedicated to her can be found in Rome, Naples and in Venice. A church near the railway station in Venice claims to have a partially incorrupt relic of her body.

According to her Acts (which have little historical value) Lucy, a Christian, was a wealthy Sicilian during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. She consecrated her virginity to God, turned down proposals of marriage to a pagan, and gave away her dowry to the poor. She was betrayed as a Christian by the man who wanted to marry her to the governor of Syracuse. A judge ordered that she should be sexually violated in a brothel, but miraculously she could not be moved from where she was. He then tried—unsuccessfully—to have her burnt, and she was finally executed by the sword. In medieval accounts, her eyes were gouged out prior to her execution.

Artistic representations reflect the stories in these Acts. Her eyes sometimes appear on a plate that she is holding. The earliest known image of her (showing no symbols) is in a frieze of virgins in the 6th century mosaics in the church of St Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna.

Until 1861, Lucy’s remains were housed in a church named after her in Venice. When this church was demolished, they were moved to the church of San Geremia, where they can still be seen.

In Scandinavia her feast, held on what was the shortest day of the year in the old calendar, has become a festival of light. The youngest daughter in the family, dressed in white, wakes the rest of the family with coffee, rolls and a special song.

In Sicily, and in many other places, the song ‘Santa Lucia’ remains enduringly popular. Lucy’s name (from the Latin word lux, meaning ‘light’) also played a large part in her being named as a patron saint of the blind and those with eye trouble.

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