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Commentary on Mark 3:1-6

Once again we see Jesus in confrontation with the religious leaders. It follows the same pattern as before between him and his critics, here simply referred to as “they”. But it is quite clear who “they” are.

The scene is in the local synagogue. Once again “they” were looking for evidence with which to convict Jesus. They were watching to see if Jesus would cure a man with a withered hand on a sabbath day. There is every likelihood that the man was ‘planted’ as a ‘set up’. To use a person with some sort of illness or condition in this way was really despicable.

There is no doubt that Jesus is fully aware of what is happening. Unhesitatingly, he tells the man to come out and stand in the middle of the assembly. Then he puts his question:

Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?

His opponents are reduced to silence. They have neither the honesty nor the integrity to give the obvious answer to the question.

In another example of how Jesus shows his feelings, we are told that he was both grieved and angry at their stubborn attitude. Grieved because their attitude was so inappropriate for people who believed they were close to God. Angry because of the terrible injustice they were prepared to impose on this man. In their book, no suffering justified breaking the Law. But for Jesus, it is not a matter of keeping or breaking laws, but of doing good.

He tells the man to stretch out his withered arm and it is completely cured. The Pharisees—humiliated—immediately went out and began to plot with the Herodians to get rid of Jesus. The Pharisees needed the help of the Herodians (supporters of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea), if they were to take action against Jesus. This strange alliance shows the extent of the Pharisees’ anger and blinding hatred. The Herodians represented everything the Pharisees despised.

The story once again highlights the difference between morality and law. It was against the Law to do healing work on the sabbath. This was because, in normal circumstances, the attention of a doctor might involve extensive treatment. But here, the healing is instantaneous. Can it be called work? Can it be seen as a violation of the spirit of the sabbath?

In this particular case, where the situation was chronic and causing no immediate distress to the man, it is worth noting that the healing could easily have taken place on another day. But Jesus uttered two principles that transcend all positive law:

• It is always justified to do what is good, provided no greater good is denied.
• No truly loving act can ever be sinful even though it may violate a law.

All laws, except for the law of love, are relative. The Law about healing on the sabbath had good intentions and was part of the observance of the Lord’s day, but it was being absolutised by the Pharisees. This is a tendency in our Christian life which we must also avoid. Even the law about being at Mass on Sunday can be absolutised. Sometimes there are pressing needs, e.g. the care of a sick person or a child, which can override the ‘law’ about Sunday Mass.

Christianity is about loving relationships, not about conformity to laws. Says St Paul:

…if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13:2)

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Commentary on 1 Samuel 16:1-13

With Saul rejected by God as king, Samuel is now told to look for a successor, whom God has already chosen. The episode, as described here, seems to come from the prophetic tradition and is not related to the later narrative in which David is anointed as king at Hebron by the men of Judah (2 Sam 2:4) and again by the elders of Israel (2 Sam 5:3), where there is no mention of the anointing described in today’s reading. In fact, in the next chapter (1 Sam 17:28), Eliab, David’s eldest brother, speaks to him as if he were still just a shepherd boy who had no place being with the Israelite army.

The reading today opens with the Lord scolding Samuel for grieving over Saul’s rejection as king. Instead he is sent to Jesse, the father of a large family of sons in Bethlehem. At first, Samuel is afraid to go because Saul may hear of it and kill Samuel out of anger and jealousy. The road from Ramah (where Samuel was) to Bethlehem passed through Gibeah, the region of Saul. Saul already knew that the Lord had chosen someone to replace him as king, and Samuel was afraid that jealousy would incite Saul to violence. Later incidents would confirm that Samuel’s fears were well-founded. So Samuel is told by God to tell Saul he is going to sacrifice a heifer to the Lord – which in fact he does. It was the truth, but not the whole truth.

When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, he was met by the elders who asked if the prophet’s visit was a peaceful one. Samuel simply replied that he had come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Again, the truth, but not the whole truth about the real purpose of his visit. He orders them to make themselves ceremonially clean for the sacrifice by washing and putting on clean clothes, as required by the law.

Jesse and his family are also invited to the sacrifice during which Samuel is to choose the one who is to be anointed king. Samuel at first presumes that Eliab, the eldest son, is the obvious candidate because his appearance and height seem to indicate he is the one. These were the qualities which had been a factor in Saul’s being chosen earlier.

But the Lord tells Samuel he is not to judge by external appearances. The Lord is concerned more with a person’s inner disposition and character:

…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Eliab, then, is not the one.

The second son, Abinadab, and then the third, Shammah, come forward but are also turned down. After seven sons had been presented and passed over, Samuel asks if there are any others.

Jesse says there is still one more, who was not present. He was away in the fields taking care of sheep. This was David. As we saw earlier, his role as one taking care of sheep is contrasted with Saul, who was earlier pictured searching after wandering and disobedient donkeys. And, of course, the image of the shepherd is one that belongs to God. It is fitting that the king of his people will also be a shepherd (and we still call those who serve the community of the church ‘pastors’, i.e. shepherds).

Samuel says that the sacrificial meal cannot proceed until the boy is brought in from the fields. David:

…was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.

He is the one that God has chosen:

The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers…

This small circle of witnesses to David’s anointing assured its confidentiality, but also would provide ample testimony for the future that David had been anointed by Samuel and that he was not merely a usurper of Saul’s office.

From that day on:

…the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David…

The spirit of God possesses David without any external manifestation and in close association with the anointing – this is the grace bestowed on one consecrated. The name ‘David’ is an ancient semitic word for ‘commander’, ‘military leader’.

David will become one of the outstanding and most human characters of the Old Testament, as both sinner and saint. In a very special way, he will be the ancestor, through Joseph, of Jesus. Jesus is the “root of Jesse” who comes from Bethlehem, the “city of David”, and it is in the royal city of his ancestor that he will be born.

A reading like this is an opportunity for us to reflect on our own vocation, our being chosen by God for a special task. And we may well wonder, why God has chosen us rather than others whom we might regard as far more qualified to do the work he has given us to do.

And within the vocation or way of life in which we already find ourselves, we can still ask to what, in our present circumstances, God is further calling us or whether he may even be calling us to serve him in a different direction altogether. Let us listen to his call and ask him for the strength and courage to say ‘Yes’.

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Commentary on Mark 2:23-28

Today we have a third confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees on the place of the Law in people’s lives. His disciples are accused of violating the sabbath by picking ears of corn (“heads of grain”) as they walked through a field. Stealing was not involved, as ‘gleaning’, especially by the hungry poor, was tolerated. But the Law forbade reaping on the sabbath. One could hardly call what the disciples were doing ‘reaping’, but with the casuistic mind of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, the bias was on the side of safety. The perfect observer of the Law would not do anything that could even be regarded in the slightest as a violation.

Jesus solves the issue by appealing to the Hebrew Testament, which, of course, the Pharisees recognised as the word of God. He reminded them how King David and his followers, because they were hungry, went into the house of God and took the loaves of offering, even though only the priests were allowed to eat them. Jesus then enunciates two principles. The first was:

The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath…

The second was that:

…the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

The first principle is a very important one, namely, that all laws are for people and not vice versa. They are not ends in themselves, and moral perfection is not in their literal observance. The hunger of David and his men transcended a religious regulation (that only the priests could eat the bread of offering). For the Jews of Jesus’ time, virtue was in perfect observance of the Law. For Jesus, observance of the Law was only perfect when it was for the good of others and oneself.

The second principle was that Jesus, as the Son of God, was not bound by human laws, however lofty their motive. We would do well to remember those principles in the living out of our Christian faith.  It is possible to lead rule-centred Christian lives rather than love- and people-centred lives.

There is only one law in our faith:

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13:34)

Even God will not violate that law because God is love. Any law which, in a particular situation, does not serve this overriding law can be set aside, and should be set aside. Positive laws are necessary for smooth functioning in society, but they are never absolute.

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Commentary on Luke 7:11-17

This story is only found in Luke’s Gospel. It is one of only three stories in the Gospel where Jesus is described as bringing a dead person to life. The most dramatic is the story of Lazarus told in John’s Gospel. There is the also the story of the synagogue leader’s daughter (Luke 6:40-56; Mark 5:21-43; Matt 9:18-26), although it is not categorically certain that she had actually died. She might have been in a coma or catatonic state.

In the thinking of the time, today’s scene is particularly sad. A woman, who has already lost her husband, has now lost her only son—her only means of support. She is on the way to bury him.

The lot of the widow in those days—often a relatively young woman—was particularly difficult in a society where the married woman was no longer the responsibility of her own family, and who, after the death of husband and children, was no longer the responsibility of her husband’s family either. She was largely left to her own devices in a society where social welfare of any kind was unknown.

Jesus himself is deeply moved at her plight. At this point, for the first time, Luke refers to Jesus as “Lord”, a title reserved for God himself. He approaches the litter (not a coffin as we know it) carrying the dead man and touches it, causing the bearers to stop. He then says:

Young man, I say to you, rise!

As in other similar stories, the word used for “rise” is the same as that used when describing the resurrection of Jesus, for he:

…came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)

The reaction of the people around is one of awe and admiration:

Fear seized all of them, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”

They had no doubts about the origin of what they had seen taking place; it was the work of God. Not surprisingly, the story spread like wildfire all through Judea and beyond. The episode prepares the way for Jesus’ response to the disciples of John the Baptist a little later (not included in our Mass readings during this time).

This story should help us to look at our own situation and see, first of all, how alive we really are. Let us look around and see how many people need to be lifted up and helped to find new life. Maybe we can do something for them.

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Commentary on Luke 7:31-35

Today’s passage follows immediately after the scene (not in our Mass readings) where Jesus answers the query from John the Baptist, now languishing in prison, about whether Jesus is truly the Messiah. Jesus uses the occasion to speak words of high praise for John:

I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luke 7:28)

Jesus now criticises the cynicism and self-contradictory attitudes of those who reject both him and John. They have simply closed their ears and want to hear nothing and learn nothing. He compares them to children in a city square calling to their playmates:

We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.

This comparison Jesus applies to John the Baptist and himself. John led an austere life in the desert eating, as we are told elsewhere, only locusts and wild honey. They said he was mad and rejected him. Jesus came leading a highly convivial life, mixing with all kinds of people. They called him a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and other sinful people. He even invited a tax collector to be one of his twelve Apostles!

It was a no-win situation. When people are like that there is really nothing that can be done. Jesus concludes with the enigmatic statement:

…wisdom is vindicated by all her children.

Both John and Jesus could be described as children of Wisdom, whose origin is God himself. Those who can see the hand of God in the lives of John and Jesus are also children of Wisdom. Those who adamantly refuse to see God are not.

It is important for us not to fall into such a trap. God speaks to us in so many ways and through so many people and situations. It is very easy to find ourselves excluding, a priori, the people or situations by which God is trying to reach us.

We cannot expect God to speak to us only in ways which we find congenial. He may speak to us through a saint or a sinner, through a conservative or a liberal, through a straight or gay person, or through a man or a woman or a young child. Perhaps he speaks through an old person or a young person, or through an educated or an illiterate person, or through someone we know or someone we don’t. We have at all times to be ready to listen with an unprejudiced mind and heart.

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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:31—13:13

In today’s First Reading, we have likely one of the most quoted passages from Paul—if not from the whole Bible. We have seen Paul speaking to the Corinthian Christians about the various gifts of the Spirit with which different people are endowed so that they can better serve the needs of the community in many different ways. He had been criticising them for laying too much emphasis on and even desiring to have the more prestigious gifts. Using the analogy of the human body he had said that the overall unity of the community was more important than any one gift, just as the unity of the body depended on its having a full complement of limbs and organs for it to function properly.

Today, however, he goes further and says that, above and beyond any gifts or ‘charisms’, there is “a still more excellent way”. That way is the over-riding element of love. Love is not on the same level as the other gifts. Rather, it is one of the most evident signs of the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the community and its members.

‘Love’ here, as in many parts of the New Testament, translates the Greek word agape, a word with a very specific meaning. The word ‘love’ can mean many things and CS Lewis has written a book called The Four Loves, each one of which can be found in the Scriptures. Let us just briefly focus on three of these: eros, philia and agape.

Eros describes physical, sensual love, the love of lovers sharing physical intimacies with each other. At its best, it is a genuine and very beautiful form of love which involves the total giving of two people to each through their bodies. Paul is not talking about this.

Philia is really the highest form of love. It is the love of friendship, where friendship implies a total mutuality and sharing between two people in a mutual self-giving to each other. It is the love of lovers at its best, the love of the happily married couple, and of friends who are deeply committed to each other. Sex may or may not be part of it. It implies an enduring relationship which may not be present in an eros situation. Again, Paul is not talking about this type of love in today’s reading.

Agape is reaching out to another person with a deep desire for that person’s total well-being and wholeness. It is the love of compassion and caring. It differs from philia in that it does not expect a return (though that may be given); it is a totally unconditional form of loving. It is the love that God extends to all creatures whether they return that love or not. In the First Letter of John we are told that God IS (agape) love (1 John 4:8). It is a constituent of his very being. Agape is a form of love which desires the good of the other quite independently of that person’s ‘lovable-ness’. It is the love that God extends equally to every single person, irrespective of who they are or how they respond. So it is a love that can be extended even to enemies, criminals and those who want to destroy us. It is the love that Jesus showed for those who who nailed him to the cross. It is the love that Paul is speaking about here. It is a love which desires the good of the other, and hence is then especially offered to those who lack it most.

Parenthetically, it is important to also add that a person cannot survive only on agape, the giving form of love. No one can remain permanently in a totally altruistic mode. At bottom whatever we do must ultimately be for our own good and well-being. What we really need for our wholeness is a true philia relationship. It is interesting how Jesus asked Peter the three questions after the resurrection. Each one is translated:

Simon son of John, do you love me? (John 21:15-17)

But in these verses, Jesus used the verbs for both agape and philia. As well, it may not be possible to show a great deal of agape unless we have a philia experience as part of our lives. We can live without eros but, when joined with philia, eros adds what we might call an incarnated dimension to our lives, although eros is also the form of love most abused.

Paul speaks of the supremacy of agape over everything else we do or achieve. If our actions are not motivated by an agape love, then they are of no real value as far as our Christian life is concerned. Using hyperbolic language, Paul gives four exaggerated examples of some of the gifts to be found in the community:

• eloquence, even to the point of being able to speak not only every earthly language but the language of angels;
• prophecy (in the sense we described it yesterday), the ability to understand all mysteries and “knowing everything” that can be known;
• faith, strong enough to move mountains (as Jesus said true faith could do);
• generosity, which would give away everything one has, even to offering one’s body in martyrdom.

To have any of these gifts in the highest degree could make one a prominent and highly respected person in the community. But if, at bottom, these things are not motivated by genuine agape, they are rated as nothing.

Speaking both positively and negatively, Paul now lists some of the qualities of this kind of agape-love:

• It is patient and kind. (These virtues were apparently not very conspicuous in the Corinthian community.)
• It is never jealous. (Jealousy seems to be present in those Corinthians who were more ambitious for certain charisms than satisfied with what they had.)
• It is never boastful or conceited. (Paul accuses the Corinthians of a certain arrogance which their overall moral behaviour in no way justifies.)
• It is never rude or selfish. (Paul mentions the divisive factions and also the selfish behaviour of some when celebrating the Lord’s Supper.)
• It does not take offence and is not resentful. (True agape is totally focused on the needs of the other and is not upset by hostility or rejection. Such inner resentment is a sign of an insecurity in oneself. People who love with true agape-love cannot be offended because they are people who totally accept themselves as they are.)
• It takes no pleasure in other’s sins but delights in the truth. (The reaction to the weaknesses of others is neither delight nor judgement, but rather compassion. True love also is never afraid of the truth, but always wants to see it come to the surface. At the same time, the truly loving person will always speak the truth in love, being sensitive to the weaknesses of those for whom the truth can be very painful. One can speak the truth in a very unloving way.)
• It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. (True love always wants to find the good in everyone. It is biased towards believing that people act in good faith. In spite of outward circumstances, it never loses the certain hope that the truth and the good must ultimately prevail. It is ready in the worst of times to hang in there and to believe in the ultimate goodness of people.)

Love alone, says Paul, outlasts everything else because love is part of God’s very nature; God is love. Loving is not just something God practises—it is a part of his very essence.

On the other hand, many of the church’s most highly prized gifts will eventually pass away. Paul mentions prophecy—there will come a time when it is no longer needed. The gift of speaking languages will not be part of the life to come. Knowledge, however wide, will eventually be shown to be inadequate when we come face to face with the Infinite Source of all knowledge and wisdom:

…when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

‘Complete’ is one translation of the Greek word pleroma, which means ‘fulfilment’, ‘perfection’, ‘maturity’. That ‘completeness’ will be realised when Christ comes at the end to bring all creation to himself to share in his glory.

Right now, says Paul, we are like children, talking like children, acting and arguing like children. We think we are adults, but it is not really the case. We are like a man looking at his reflection in one of those polished metal mirrors of those days. The image can be seen but is somewhat blurred. But then, when the Lord comes, we will have the extraordinary experience of seeing God clearly face to face. Though now:

I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

That is, I will know the Lord to the fullest extent possible for a human creature, analogous to the unlimited way in which God knows me.

And so, Paul sums up by saying that in the end only three things will perdure: faith, hope and agape-love. We will not need faith when we are face to face with our infinite Creator. We will not need hope because every possible desire of our being will be fulfilled forever. But agape will remain. Face to face with God, we will be eternally bathed in that agape which pours from him and fills us with the happiness for which we were created.

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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31

In today’s reading, Paul moves on to another issue in the Corinthian community—the question of “spiritual gifts” or “charisms” (Greek, charismata). Here too there were disputes among community members.

The gifts under discussion were granted to certain members of the community and were the signs by which the Spirit helped the community to function. We need to remember that the organisation of the communities at this stage was not very developed. The later hierarchical ministries we know now were still in the process of evolution. This led to a certain amount of confusion in the community, and was the cause of some of the factional disagreements which were occurring. Some of the gifts were even disruptive, being rather eccentric in form. Clearly, there had to be a discernment between which were beneficial and which were not.

In this part of his letter Paul makes five points:

1. All the gifts come from the Spirit working in the community;
2. All the gifts, though given to individuals, are for the good of the whole community;
3. The importance of each gift is to be measured by its benefit to the community;
4. The gift of ‘prophecy’ is far more important than being able to ‘speak in tongues’, a gift about which the Corinthians apparently thought very highly.
5. Love (agape) transcends and is present in all the genuine gifts and is in a class by itself. This is dealt with in the famous ‘Hymn to Love’ (1 Cor 13:1-13) which we will be reading tomorrow.

To illustrate what he wants to say, Paul uses the analogy of the human body. Although it is made of many different parts, each with its own functions, it is basically a single coordinated unit. So it is with Christ, says Paul. By ‘Christ’ here he means the Risen Christ, which includes his new Body, the Church and each local church community. For Paul, Christians are bodily united with the Risen Body through their Baptism and the common celebration of the Eucharist. The community becomes, in effect, the Risen Body of Christ—of which he is the Head. Hence, the importance of its unity and mutual complementarity is obvious.

The source of unity is the Spirit of Christ in which all, both Jews and Greeks, citizens and slaves, were baptised and given that Spirit. In the community, there can be no ethnic or social discrimination where the giving of the Spirit is concerned:

…we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Paul now emphasises that a body is not to be identified with any one of its parts. This is what was happening in the Corinthian community, where groups were giving excessive importance to the charism of one or other of their leaders, or to the gifts which some individuals were experiencing.

Continuing his analogy, he tells them that they, in their community, are the Body of Christ but, like a body, each one has a different role to play. He singles out three particular charisms as being of prime importance.

First of all, come the Apostles. They are those who were specially and personally chosen by Jesus during his time among us to carry on his work of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. They were also to be witnesses of the resurrection. They are the founder members, the ‘pillars’ of the Church and the unique bearers of the tradition which Jesus handed on.

Next to them in importance come the prophets. The special role of the prophet is not to foretell the future. The prophet was any person through whom God wishes to communicate a message to a particular community. It might be an encouragement; it might be a warning. The prophet, unlike the apostle, is a ‘non-institutional’ figure and can appear at any time. Clearly, careful discernment is needed to distinguish the true from the false prophets. Because the message they give may be unpleasant to hear or may challenge the status quo, prophets may not be welcome and may even face efforts made to get rid of them. At the same time, we ignore the message of the true prophet at our peril, and at all times we need prophets to wake us out of our complacency.

Thirdly, there are the teachers, those whose gift was to form the community and to hand on the content and meaning of the tradition received from Jesus. Again, they make an indispensable contribution to the life and growth of the community.

After these come charisms of less crucial importance, although they can greatly enrich the life of the community.

Some members had the gift of performing miracles, namely, actions which could not be explained by natural means. Their main function was to reveal the power of God working in the community and to be spurs to a deeper faith (as such, it does not really matter that at a later age, there might be a natural explanation for what happened).

The gift of healing was given to some, and again was the means by which the Lord brought wholeness back into people’s lives.

‘Helpers’ are those who make charitable contributions or support the community in some other way; ‘leaders’ are those who do the administrative work and provide guidance on a practical level.

Lastly, there are those who “speak in tongues”. It is not clear whether this means an actual ability to speak in different languages and dialects (quite useful in cosmopolitan Corinth) or whether it refers to making ecstatic utterances, i.e. the ‘gift of tongues’, under the impulse of the Spirit (and which needed interpretation by those gifted to understand their meaning).

These gifts are all spread among the community and not given to all, or even to many. Not all can claim to be apostles, or prophets, or miracle-doers, or healers. That would result in a very lop-sided body. So, the gifts are many but the community is one.

It is also important to realise that this list is not meant to be exhaustive. There are hundreds of possible charisms, and surely every single member in the community has a gift by which a positive contribution can be made to the life of the community. Everyone, in however small a way, can and should make a difference by their presence.

And, if we are to desire any gifts, let us seek those which are of greater benefit to the community, and not just those which are more spectacular (like speaking in tongues) or seem to give higher status in the eyes of others. However, in conclusion, Paul says that behind all these gifts lies something much more important, it is “a still more excellent way”. We will see what that is tomorrow.

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Commentary on Genesis 28:10-22

Today and tomorrow we read of two strange experiences which Jacob has. On the way from Beersheba to Haran, Jacob stops for the night. Haran, we may remember, was the place between Ur and Canaan where Abraham lived before moving down to Canaan. It was there, too, that he had found Rachel, the wife of his son Isaac.

Using a stone for a pillow, Jacob lies down to sleep just where he is. As he sleeps, he has a dream. He sees a staircase reaching from the earth right up to heaven. And on it there were angels or messengers of God going up and down. We normally speak of “Jacob’s Ladder” but, in fact, the Hebrew word sullam, means a stairway.

The image in Jacob’s dream is derived from the Babylonian ziggurat or temple tower. On the outside was a flight of brick steps leading to a small temple at the top. As we saw in our earlier readings from Genesis, the Tower of Babel was modelled on such a tower.

The angels or messengers of God going up and down the staircase between earth and heaven are a sign that the Lord is offering to be Jacob’s God. Later, Jesus would tell Nathanael that he would:

…see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

Jesus himself becomes the stairway between heaven and earth (see John 14:6), the “one mediator between God and humankind” (1 Tim 2:5). He is also called the Pontifex or Bridge-maker.

Jacob then sees God standing above him and speaking to him. This continues the image of the ziggurat where the god is present at the top of the tower. And God identifies himself to the sleeping Jacob:

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac…

Then come the promises: The land on which Jacob is lying will be given to him and his descendants. Once again God promises that his descendants will be as numerous as specks of dust on the earth, that they will spread in every direction and that all the tribes of the earth will bless themselves by Jacob and his descendants. God promises to be with Jacob and his descendants always, and to bring them back to this land. God will not desert them and all of his promises will be fulfilled. In this God is unlike the gods of pagan religions, who were merely local deities giving protection only in their own territories. Here God assures Jacob that he will be with him wherever he goes.

This promise, of course, has relevance to the later periods of exile. Jacob then wakes up and realises:

Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!

If he had known, he might not have chose just that place to have a sleep. He is filled with fear:

How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

“This” refers both to the stone used as a pillow the staircase of his dream.

To commemorate his experience, Jacob takes the stone he had used for a pillow and sets it up as a memorial stone, consecrating it with oil. A ‘memorial stone’ (in Hebrew, messaba) might vary in shape or size, and would be set upright and usually intended for some religious purpose. The custom of erecting such ‘sacred pillars’ went back to the pre-Israelite period and their pagan associations were often retained. For that reason, later Israelite religion forbade their being erected (see Lev 26:1) and ordered the destruction of those with pagan associations (Exod 34:13).

The stone used as a pillow now marks the place of God’s presence. The place, formerly known as Luz, is now named Bethel—“a house of God”. Jacob anoints the stone with oil as a formal act of worship and consecration. Practices of this kind were common in the Canaanite world and in the Semitic world in general, but as already mention, were later condemned by both the Law and the prophets (see also Exod 23:24).

Before leaving the place, Jacob makes a final vow. If God keeps his promises and protects Jacob, then Yahweh will be his God, the stone he has set up as a memorial will become the house of God. The passage is not fully clear about the concept of God at this point, especially with terms like “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob”. The later concept of a unique universal God seems yet to be conceived. Each of the people of those days had their own protecting god who had to be served. The Israelites had their God too, a powerful God, a God who was always with them wherever they went, but not seen as the God of other peoples.

Several of the Church Fathers later saw in Jacob’s ladder an image of the providential care God exercises on earth through the ministry of the angels. Others saw in it a foreshadowing of the incarnation of the Word who linked heaven with earth—Jesus as the Mediator mentioned above. The liturgy makes use of verse 17 (“How awesome is this place…”) in the Office and Mass for the dedication of a church.

The story is a continuation and a confirmation of the covenant promise God had made earlier with Abraham. The same promises are now made to the grandson, who, as we shall see, will be the father of the Twelve Patriarchs, from whom all God’s people are descended. And that promise reaches down to Jesus himself and through him to us, who are the spiritual offspring of Jacob. In a sense that Jacob or the Israelites could never have imagined, God’s people—with Jesus as Lord—have become a blessing for countless millions of people all over the world.

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Commentary on Ezra 6:7-8, 12, 14-20

In spite of the proclamation which King Cyrus had made about the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple, they met with many difficulties, especially from the Samaritans who were living there.

Today we find ourselves in chapter 6. Cyrus has been replaced by another great Persian king, Darius. He orders a search for a document deposited in the treasuries of Babylon which confirms an order that had been given by Cyrus for work to begin on the Temple.

It includes some instructions on the design of the Temple building; the cost of building is to come from the royal treasury; and the gold and silver articles which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken were to be returned. Then the governor of Transeuphrates (that is, the part of the Persian Empire to the west of the River Euphrates) and his assistants are told to stay away from the site and (our reading begins at this point).

King Darius ordered:

…let the work on this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

The Jews have full permission to rebuild the Temple on its original site. But the central government will provide help. In fact, the cost of the construction is to be paid in full from the royal revenue, from taxes collected in Transeuphrates and without interruption.

It was a consistent policy of Persian kings to help restore sanctuaries in their empire. For example, a memorandum concerning the rebuilding of the Jewish temple at Elephantine was written by the Persian governors of Judah and Samaria. Also from non-Biblical sources we learn that Cyrus repaired temples at Uruk (Erech) and Ur. Cambyses, successor to Cyrus, gave funds for the temple at Sais in Egypt. The temple of Amun in the Khargah Oasis was rebuilt by order of Darius.

Darius then pledges in the name of the God who lives in Jerusalem (not his god) that he will overthrow the king of any people who dares to defy this decree and destroy that Temple of God in Jerusalem.

The Transeuphrates governor followed the king’s instructions to the letter and:

…the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia…

In fact, work on the temple had made little progress, not only because of opposition from people like the neighbouring Samaritans, but also because of the preoccupation of the returnees with building their own homes. Because they were placing their own interests first, God sent them famine as a judgment. However, spurred on by the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and under the leadership of Zerubbabel, governor of Jerusalem, and Joshua, the high priest, a new effort was begun.

The reference to Artaxerxes seems out of place, because he did not contribute to the rebuilding of the temple at this time. He may have been inserted here since he contributed to the work of the temple at a later date under Ezra (7:21-24).

The Temple was finally completed on the 23rd day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. By our calendar that would be April 1, 515 BC. This Temple, remodelled by Herod the Great (see John 2:20), was in use for 585 years and was destroyed by the Romans under the rule of Titus in 70 AD, never again to be rebuilt.

The New International Version Study Bible makes the following observation about the ‘new’ Temple:

“Almost 70 years after its destruction, the renewed work on the temple had begun on Sept 21, 520 (Hag 1:15), and sustained effort had continued for almost three and a half years. According to Haggai (2:3), the older members who could remember the splendour of Solomon’s temple were disappointed when they saw the smaller size of Zerubbabel’s temple (see Ezr 3:12). Yet in the long run the second temple, though not as grand as the first, enjoyed a much longer life. The general plan of the second temple was similar to that of Solomon’s, but the Most Holy Place was left empty because the Ark of the Covenant had been lost through the Babylonian conquest. According to Josephus, on the Day of Atonement the high priest placed his censer on the slab of stone that marked the former location of the ark. The Holy Place was furnished with a table for the bread of the Presence, the incense altar, and one [seven-branched] lampstand (see 1 Macc 1:21-22; 4:49-51) instead of Solomon’s ten [lampstands] (1 Kings 7:49).”

After the construction was complete:

The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

The ‘rest of the returned exiles’ is the Remnant spared by God and now returned from exile. It was the leaders of those who had returned from exile that were responsible for the completion of the temple. “Dedication” translates the Aramaic word hanukkah. The Jewish holiday in December that celebrates the recapture of the temple from the Seleucid kings and its re-dedication (165 BC) is also known as ‘Hanukkah’, but is the celebration of a different dedication from Ezra’s.

The dedication of the Temple was celebrated with a spectacular sacrifice of animals:

They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

The numbers seem huge yet pale in comparison with services in the reign of Solomon, Hezekiah and Josiah, when the animals were numbered in thousands rather than hundreds.

The priests were then installed in their orders and the Levites in their positions for ministry in the Temple, following the instructions of Moses (e.g. Exod 9; Lev 8). The priests were divided into 24 divisions, each of which served at the Temple for a week at a time (see also in Luke 1:8, how the angel spoke to Zechariah in the Temple announcing the birth of John the Baptist, when it was the turn of his ‘order’ to function). In 1962 fragments of a synagogue inscription listing the 24 divisions were found at Caesarea.

The returned exiles also celebrated their first Passover after 70 years on the traditional date, 14th day of the first month (Nisan). It would have been about April 21, 516 BC. And, in preparation for this celebration, the Levites had all purified themselves so that they could make the Passover sacrifice for their brothers, the priests, and for themselves. This also explains why the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). They were on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem and their ritual purity took priority over their helping a brother lying injured (and bleeding) on the roadside. For Jesus the needs of the brother are the first priority. That is why the stranger and outsider, the Samaritan, is the ‘neighbour’. He is “the one who showed him mercy”.

The Levites are also represented as slaughtering the paschal victims, because for a long time this had been done by ‘laymen’ (see Deut 16:2; Exod 12:6). The urge to ‘clericalism’ is very strong!

Reading this passage we realise it is very difficult to put a permanent end to God’s work. Our churches, too, have experienced and still experience persecution, exile and the destruction of places of worship again and again, only to see them restored. The truth, wherever it is, will always prevail. It is the foundation of our faith and our hope.

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Commentary on Ezra 1:1-6 Read Monday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time – First Reading »