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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.

However, today 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 gifts were beneficial and which were not.

In this part of his letter Paul makes five points:

1. All the gifts come from the Spirit, who is 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 chosen 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 and 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, the Israelite’s religion later 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 mentioned, 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 and 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 peoples 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 (now Warka, Iraq) and that 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

We go back to the Old Testament today and begin the first of just three readings from the Book of Ezra.  And, indeed, for the next three weeks (up to the end of Week 27) we will be having selected readings from eight books, some historical and some prophetical, of the period after the Israelites had returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.  This followed the defeat of the Babylonians by the Persians, who had become the latest ‘super-power’ in the region.

In order to put the readings in context, we begin with an extensive extract from an introduction given by the Jerusalem Bible:

“Ezra is part of a second group of historical books which in large measure reduplicate, but ultimately extend the ‘Deuteronomic’ history beginning with Joshua and ending with Kings.  These are the two Books of Chronicles, then the Book of Ezra, and the Book of Nehemiah.  Originally, the two books of Chronicles were one book and those of Ezra and Nehemiah were part of the same collection, the whole being the work of one author, known as ‘the Chronicler’.

The Book of Ezra is a continuation of the Chronicles story.  After the 50 years of Exile, on which he is silent, the author resumes his history with the edict of the Persian King Cyrus, 538 BC, permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  The return begins forthwith, but the work of rebuilding is halted by the hostility of the Samaritans and does not resume until the reign of King Darius I. The Temple is finished in 515 BC.

Under King Artaxerxes, the scribe Ezra, representative for Jewish affairs at the Persian court, arrives in Jerusalem with a new contingent of returning exiles, bringing with him an official authorisation to impose the Mosaic Law, now approved by the king.  He has to take severe measures against those Jews already married to foreigners, Ezra 7-10.  The story continues with the Book of Nehemiah…

These books are important for the history of the Jewish Restoration after the Exile.  The first chapters of Ezra complement the information supplied by prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi [all of whom we will be looking at during these three weeks].

Taking advantage of the liberal religious policy that the Achmenids (Persian dynasty) applied in their empire, the Jews return to their Promised Land, restore the ancient worship, rebuild the Temple and the city walls, and live as a community governed by men of their own race and regulated by the Law of Moses.  All that the imperial power requires is loyalty, no great price to pay when that power shows such respect for Jewish customs.  This is an event of great importance—nothing less than the birth of Judaism, prepared by long meditation in Exile and assisted by the actions of leaders raised up by God…

The real father of Judaism is Ezra with his three dominant conceptions: the chosen race, the Temple, the Law.  If his reforming measures seem severe and his isolationism narrow, it is because his zeal was great and the need to safeguard the infant community urgent.  He is the pattern of all scribes, the great and growing hero of Judaic tradition…”

In today’s reading, which comes from the Book of Ezra’s opening lines, we see Cyrus, King of Persia, authorising the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. We are told that it was in the first year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, and in fulfilment of a prophecy of Jeremiah, that Yahweh inspired the king to issue a solemn proclamation which was displayed throughout his kingdom.

Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, reigned over the Persians from autumn of 559 until 530 BC.  He is one of the great kings of ancient times, but what is most significant here is that he is depicted as being merely an instrument of God to serve his people.  Isaiah speaks of him as the Lord’s “shepherd” and his “anointed”. Compared to the Assyrian and Babylonian rulers, Cyrus was looked on very favourably by the Israelites, first, for overthrowing the Babylonian rule and, more importantly, allowing them to return to their homeland.

The “first year” here refers to Cyrus’ rule over Babylon, which began in March-April (Nisan) 538 BC, after he captured the city in October of 539 BC, 20 years after he came to the Persian throne.

Jeremiah, writing during the years of exile, had prophesied a 70-year Babylonian captivity (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10).  The first deportation to Babylon began in 605 BC, in the third year of King Jehoiakim, and, in 538 BC, approximately 70 years later, the people began their return.

Cyrus then makes a solemn proclamation authorising the Hebrews to return to their homeland.

In the proclamation Cyrus declares that Yahweh:

The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

This oral proclamation of Cyrus’ decree was written in Hebrew, the language of the Israelite captives.

“God of heaven” is a phrase which occurs 22 times in the Old Testament, 17 of which are in Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel.  Notice, too, the strong emphasis on Jerusalem and the Temple with nothing else mentioned about the homeland.  We find this in both Ezra and Nehemiah.  The restoration of the Temple and the Law was synonymous with national restoration.

Unlike the preceding imperial regimes, the Persian kings were on the whole extremely sympathetic towards the religions of their subjected peoples; they reinstated and actively supported them while keeping a measure of control.  Their attitude towards the Jewish religion was no exception.  It is possible that Judaism further benefited because of the Persians’ special devotion to ‘the god of heaven’. Yahweh, who in the official documents is always referred to as ‘the God of heaven’ may have been thought of as the supreme god acknowledged by the Persian kings. In a sense, not unlike Jews, Christians and Muslims were acknowledging the one and the same God.

He then addresses each Israelite:

Let any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—go up to Jerusalem in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

“May God be with him”—Cyrus instituted the policy of placating the gods of his subject peoples instead of carrying off their cult images as the Assyrians and the Babylonians had done earlier.  We should note too that his generosity to the Jews was paralleled by his benevolence to the conquered Babylonians.

The phrase, “those among you who are of his people”, seems to exclude exiles from the Northern Kingdom; those going back to Jerusalem all belong to the Southern Kingdom (Judah).

Furthermore, Cyrus continues, let each Hebrew survivor:

…in whatever place they reside be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods, and with livestock, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.

These voluntary offerings would be vital in the restoration of the ruined Temple and its services and they included, by order of the king, the restoration of Temple treasures looted by Nebuchadnezzar.

This edict appears in the form of a proclamation, in Hebrew, by public heralds to the exiled Jews and was no doubt drawn up by Jews employed in the Persian chancellery.

Then the heads of all the families from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and Levites, and “everyone whose spirit God had stirred”, made preparations to go and rebuild the Temple.  ‘Families’ here means extended families, more like the whole clan whose authority figure was the patriarch, as ‘family head’.  The tribes of Judah and Benjamin were the main tribes from the Kingdom of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, in which Jerusalem was situated.

And finally, in conformity with the king’s decree, all the Israelites’ neighbours rallied round with all kinds of material help and gifts, as well as with voluntary donations.

Cyrus and his successors represent a period of enlightened tolerance when people like the Jews and other religions were able to maintain or restore their religious practices and traditions.

While, on the one hand, we should not see God as a kind of puppet master who manipulates people at will, we also need to realise that all of us are called to carry out God’s plan for the world and that there is no way we can frustrate that plan.

We will pray today for a clear picture of God’s will in our lives and the strength to accept it and carry it out.  Our own greatest benefit is in making God’s will ours.

We might also remember today all peoples who are prevented from the practice of their religion in peace with their neighbours and, even more, people who have had to flee their homeland because of religious persecution.

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Commentary on Luke 6:43-49

In our final reading from Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus speaks of the qualities of a genuine disciple. The goodness of every disciple comes from within and is not to be measured merely by one’s external behaviour:

No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit.

At the same time, consistently good behaviour is a sign of a healthy interior:

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

We need to focus our energies on our interior spirit. If that is good, the rest will take care of itself.

Another measure of the good disciple is how he or she listens and acts on the words of the Master. To ‘listen’ includes hearing, understanding, accepting, and assimilating into one’s self the Master’s teaching and vision. The behaviour then follows naturally, spontaneously and, to a large extent, effortlessly.

Such a person is compared to a man who has built his house on a strong foundation. When floods came, the house stood firm. On the other hand, the one who listens, but does not take in and so does not act on what has been heard is like a man who built his house on a poor foundation. When the floods came, it collapsed.

This parable needs to be read in the context of the early Church where, in time of persecution, some stood firm because their faith was deeply rooted, while others fell away at the first sign of pressure.

Even if there is no overt persecution of the Christian faith where we live, we live in times which are very threatening to a genuinely Christ-centred life. Without a sure foundation, it is very easy to be enticed away to a life of materialism, consumerism, hedonism, and individualism. Because of their superficial attractiveness and their being indulged in by so many around us, these things are often far more insidious than outright attacks on our faith.

In fact, experience shows again and again that nothing strengthens people’s faith more than open persecution. Most of us live in a much more dangerous environment, an environment not of torture and imprisonment, but of advertising and media hype promising untold happiness and pleasure, where the vision of the gospel is ignored, irrelevant or actively rejected. We need to have very sure foundations to live in such a world.

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Commentary on Mark 8:1-10

Today we have the second of two multiplication stories found in Mark. The first, with 5,000 people, was in a predominantly Jewish area while this one, with 4,000 people, is in mainly gentile territory. Jesus is reaching out to both groups. The people have nothing to eat and are hungry. The meaning is both physical and spiritual.

Once again we see Mark indicating the emotional response of Jesus. He is filled with compassion for the people in their need.

I have compassion for the crowd…If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.

They will collapse “on the way”, i.e. on the road. Jesus is the Way, the ‘Road’. To walk the road of Jesus, we need a certain kind of nourishment. This is what Jesus came to give.

The disciples, interpreting Jesus literally, as they usually do, ask:

How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?

In the presence of Jesus, the question answers itself, but the disciples have not yet clicked. In Mark’s Gospel, they are often shown to be without an understanding of just who their Master is—that is because they represent us.

The disciples are asked what they can supply. Seven loaves and a few fish is all they have. There is a strong Eucharistic element in this, as in the former story (with the 5,000). The people are told to sit down, and:

…he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks [Greek, eucharistesas] he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.

Again, we note that Jesus himself does not give out the food the people need. It comes from him, but is distributed by his disciples. The same is true today. It is our task to feed the hungry—both physically and spiritually. All were filled—4,000 people altogether—and even so, there were seven (a perfect number) baskets left over. This was another sign of God’s abundance shared with his people.

As before:

…he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. [i.e. back to Jewish territory]

Jesus was leaving no room for any misinterpretations of what he had done. The disciples, too, are quickly removed from the scene. There was to be no self-congratulation or glorying in their connections with Jesus, the wonder worker. Through the miracle, the teaching had been given and that was it.

And so, we pray:

Lord, teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to labour and seek no reward,
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.

(Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola)

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Commentary on Luke 10:1-12

Two days ago we saw Jesus firmly setting out for Jerusalem and the accomplishment of his mission. Yesterday we saw how he responded to people who wanted to or were being invited to join his mission. During the coming days we will see Jesus preparing his actual disciples for their work.

In addition to the inner circle of the Twelve, we are told today that he appointed another 72 (12×6) and sent them two by two to the places he himself would be visiting (note that only Luke mentions this group). That is a good description of our Christian role. We are supposed to go first to prepare the ground, but then it is Jesus himself who comes to plant the seed of faith.

Jesus then goes on to give an instruction to his disciples. We, too, should be listening to his words. First, he points out that the harvest is great and there are very few labourers—few who are willing to do the harvesting work with Jesus.

This is a text which is often thrown at us during ‘vocation’ campaigns. We tend to hear it as a call for more priests, brothers and nuns. It is that, of course, but when Jesus spoke there were no priests, brothers or nuns. The challenge was being thrown out to all his followers to find more people to join in the harvesting work.

We have to be careful as we listen to these words not to exclude ourselves because we are middle-aged, or married, or already have a career. The words are addressed to all of us and call for some kind of response from every one of us. It is never too late to respond to the call.

Second, Jesus warns his followers that it may not be easy.

I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.

In spite of the message of truth, love, compassion and justice that we bring, it does not mean that we will be received with open arms. On the contrary, we may meet with strong opposition and even persecution. Our message will be seen as threatening. It will be distorted and misunderstood.

Third, the disciples are called on to travel light. Jesus himself “had nowhere to lay his head” and he only had the clothes he wore.

So many of us are weighed down by the things we own. Some of us have to protect our property with the latest in security devices. In our search for prosperity and material security we have lost the more precious gift of freedom. The disciples are not to stop to greet people in the sense of carrying on lengthy conversations. Their mission was urgent—there are few labourers for a potentially huge harvest.

Fourth, they are to be bearers of peace. Peace, shalom, is much more than an absence of violence. It is a deep inner harmony with oneself, with others, with one’s environment, with God:

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

We could hardly bring a more precious gift to others than this inner peace. It is, in fact, the heart of our Christian message. Faith, hope and love are the keys to peace.

Fifth, the evangeliser is to stay in the first house that accepts him. He should not be going around looking for better accommodation. At the same time, he is to be provided with shelter and hospitality:

…for the laborer deserves to be paid.

This, it seems, was the way Jesus himself lived. And this was the overall ideal of the Christian community: a network of mutually supporting people sharing their resources with each other and with those in greater need than themselves.

Sixth, their work is primarily to heal the sick in the places they go to. ‘Healing’ should be taken in a wider sense of including body, feelings, mind and spirit. And ‘healing’ should also be seen not just as getting rid of a sickness, but of making a person whole again. Bringing healing and wholeness into the lives of individuals and communities is of the essence of the Kingdom and at the heart of Jesus’ work and that of his followers. The sign of that wholeness is inner peace. Today it is no different.

And they are to say:

…the kingdom of God has come near.

This is not just a statement they are to throw out. It is the core of Jesus’ message and an explanation of why people are experiencing healing and wholeness coming into their lives. This is the effect of the coming of the Kingdom; this is what the coming of the Kingdom means. God’s power is penetrating their lives, transforming them and making them whole again.

Luke mentions the Kingdom of God more than 30 times; Matthew more than 50 times. Matthew’s is truly a Gospel of the Kingdom.

The term can have a number of meanings:

• the eternal Kingship (basileia) of God;
• the presence of the Kingdom in the person of Jesus; he is the embodiment, the incarnation of the rule of God in himself, an incarnation he wishes to be found in his disciples and the communities they establish;
• the future Kingdom in the life that is to come.

In short, the Kingdom—the rule of God—is intended to be both a present reality as well as a future hope.

And finally, seventh, if there is any place where they are not received, the disciples are to leave it to its own fate. Even then those people are to know that the Kingdom of God is near to them also. There is always the hope that the results of their very rejection of the Kingdom will lead to a deeper awareness later on. By rejecting the messengers of God, they have opened themselves to a fate worse than that of Sodom, a city utterly destroyed because of its shameful lack of hospitality to divine visitors. But those hearing the message of Jesus are even more accountable for hearing the message of the Kingdom proclaimed to them and turning their back on it.

Clearly, we cannot literally apply all of these points to our own work on behalf of the gospel, but we need to make the underlying principles and values ours too. It will require some reflection on our part, both as individuals and as communities, on how we should effectively share the gospel with those around us and be the harvesters that are so badly needed. Indeed, let us pray for vocations, but let us remember that every single one of us is being called to work in the harvest field and not just some chosen souls who are totally unknown to us.

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Commentary on Matthew 17:22-27

For the second time Jesus warns his disciples about what is to come: his suffering, death and resurrection. Once again the word ‘delivered’ or ‘handed over’ (Greek, emiparadidomi) is used. It is a refrain running right through the Gospels—applied to John the Baptist, to Jesus, to the disciples, and to the giving of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.

We are told that the disciples are overwhelmed with grief over what Jesus says. Whether that is purely out of sorrow for Jesus, or whether it represents their disillusionment, is hard to say. This was not the kind of end they were expecting to the coming of the Messiah.

The second part of today’s reading is a peculiar scene, only to be found in Matthew. The collectors of the temple tax want to know whether Jesus pays it or not. Peter assures them that he does.

But on entering the house (there is that anonymous ‘house’ again, which seems to symbolise the Church or the Christian community), Jesus asks Peter (though, interestingly, he calls him by his old name ‘Simon’):

What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?

In other words, from whom do they collect taxes, from their subjects, or from foreigners? Peter replies:

From others…

And, in fact, the Romans did collect taxes from their colonised peoples and not from their own citizens.

In that case, Jesus says, the sons—that is, he and his disciples—should be exempt from paying the temple tax. After all, the Temple is God’s house, and Jesus is his Son, and his disciples are his brothers, sons of the same Father.

But to avoid giving scandal and misunderstanding, Peter is told to catch a fish in whose mouth he will find a shekel, enough to pay taxes for both of them. A half shekel was levied each year on all Jewish males of 20 years or older. It was for the upkeep of the Temple. A half shekel at this time was roughly equivalent to two days’ wages.

This passage seems to reflect a dilemma of the early Church, in fact, a double dilemma. Should Christians who are Jews continue to pay the temple tax? And, should Christians in general have to pay tax to a pagan government, especially one whose emperor claims to be a deity?

The first dilemma solved itself in time, especially with the destruction of the Temple (which had already taken place when Matthew’s Gospel was written). The second dilemma took longer. The problem seems to have been solved by the principle laid down elsewhere by Jesus:

Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. (Matt 22:21)

We too have to discern what is legitimately required of us by our governments and make our contribution to the needs of our society while, at the same time, not compromising on issues where universal principles of truth and justice are at stake. Civil disobedience is sometimes not only a right, but also a responsibility.