OPEN AND FEARLESS SPEECH - 12th Sunday In Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Homily for the 12^th Sunday In Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Based on Mt 10:26-33 (Gospel), Jr 20:10-13 (First Reading) and Rm 5:12-15 (Second Reading)

From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”

OPEN AND FEARLESS SPEECH

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt 10:28).

The Gospel for this 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A) is taken from Mt 10:26-33,under the title “Open and fearless speech”.

Parallel text is Lk 12:2-7 that says :Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear (v. 2). For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops (v. 3). ‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more (v. 4). I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him (v. 5). Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight (v. 6). Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows (v. 7).

Verses 26  and 27 says: Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.^k What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops. Footnote  ^ksays “Jesus was obliged to obscure his message: 1. His hearers would have misunderstood a clearer teaching, Mk 1:34+; 2. He himself had not yet completed- by death and resurrection-the work which alone could explain the message. Later on it will be the duty of his disciples to deliver the message in its entirety and without fear. These same words are found in Lk but with an entirely different meaning: the disciples are not to imitate Pharisaic hypocrisy; whatever they may try to hide will certainly come to light eventually; they must therefore speak openly.”

Parallel texts for verse 26 say:

1.       Mk 4:22 - For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’

2.       Lk 8:17 - For nothing is hidden is hidden but it will be made clear, nothing secret but it will be known and brought to light.

3.       1 Tm 5:25 - In the same way, the good that people can do can be obvious; but even when it is not, it cannot be hidden forever.

Verse 28-32 say: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet no one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.Why, every hair on your head has been counted.So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.^l Footnote  ^lsays“When the last Judgment takes place and the Son commits the elect to his Father, cf. 25:14.”

Parallel texts of verse 28 are:

1.       Heb 10:31 - It is dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

2.       1 P 3:14…if you do have to suffer for being good, you will count it a blessing. There is no need to be afraid or to worry about them.^d Footnote ^d says: “Om. ‘or to worry about them.’”

3.       Rv 2:10  - Do not be afraid to the sufferings that are coming to you: I tell you, the devil is going to send some of you to prison to test you, and you must face an ordeal in ten days.^h Even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize. Footnote^hsays “i.e. of short duration.”

4.       Rv 14:7 - Fear God and praise him, because the time has come for him to sit in judgment; worship the maker of heaven and earth and sea and every water-spring.’

 Verse 33 says: But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mk 8:38 - For if anyone in this adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

2.       Lk 9:26 - For if anyone is ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his own glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

3.       2 Tm 2:12 - If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him. If we disown him, then he will disown us.

4.      Rv 3:5 - Those who prove victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes;^b I shall not blot their names out of the book of life, but acknowledge their names in the presence of my Father and his angels.Footnote ^bsays “A symbol of purity but also of victory and joy”.

The First Reading is taken from Jr 20:10-13.

Verse 10 says: I hear so many disparaging me, ‘“Terror from every side!” ‘Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Jr 6:25 - Do not go out into the countryside, do not venture on the roads, for the enemy’s sword is there, there is terror on every side.

2.       Ps 31:13 - I hear their endless slanders, threats from every quarter, as they combine against me, plotting to take my life.

3.       Ps 41:5 - My enemies say of me with malice, ‘How long before he dies and his name perishes?’

4.       Lm 2:22 - As thought to a festival you have summoned terrors on every side; on the day of your wrath, no one escaped, no one survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has murdered them all.

5.       Ws 2:12 - Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he  annoys us^g; and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for breaches of the law and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing. Footnote  ^g says “Literary influence of Is. 3:10 (LXX).”

Verse 11 says: But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mustered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable, disgrace will be theirs.

Parallel text is Ps 109:29 that says: Clothe my accusers in disgrace, cover them with a cloak of shame.

Verses 12 and 13 say: But you, Yahweh Sabaoth, you probe with justice, who scrutinize the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.^g Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy^h from the hands of evil men. Footnote  ^g says ‘‘with justice’ two Hebr. MSS, Syr., Arab., cf. 11:20: ‘the just man’ Hebr. ‘committed’ corr., cf. 11:20; ‘revealed’ Hebr. This verse, a repetition of 11:20, does not seem to have belonged here originally.”; and  Footnote ^h  says “The ‘needy’, ebion, here in the sense of ‘devout’, the man who looks to Yahweh for support. The ‘poor of Yahweh’, cf. Zp 2:3+, are the spiritual children of Jeremiah.”

Parallel texts of verse 12 are:

1.        Jr 11:20 - But, you, Yahweh Sabaoth, who pronounce a just sentence who probe the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.^j Footnote ^j says “‘I have committed’ corr.; ‘I have revealed’ Hebr. On such appeals to God for revenge, cf. Ps 5:10+.”

2.       1 S 16:7…but Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height for I have rejected him; God does not see^b as man sees; man looks at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart.’ Footnote  ^b says “‘God sees’ Greek.”

The Second Reading is taken from Rm 5:12-15 under the title “Adam and Jesus Christ^h”.  Footnote ^h says “Sin dwells within man, Rm 7:14-24; now death, sin’s chastisement, came into the world as a result of Adam’s fall, Ws 2:24; from this Paul concludes that sin itself entered into all men through that first fall. We have here the doctrine of original sin. Its interest for Paul lies in the parallel it enables him to draw between deadly work of the first Adam and the more than sufficient compensation of the ‘second Adam’, vv. 15-19; 1 Co 15:21f, 25. It is as the new head of the human race, the great image in which God remakes his creation, Rm 8:29+; 2 Co 5:17+, that Christ is mankind’s savior.”

Verse 12 says: Well then, sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death,ⁱ and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. ^j Footnote  ⁱ  says “Sin divides man from God. This separation is ‘death’, death spiritual and eternal; physical death is the symbol of it, cf. Ws 2:24; Heb 6:1+.”; and Footnote  ^j  says “Meaning disputed. Either by sharing in Adam’s sin, (‘all have sinned in Adam’) or else by their own personal sins, cf. 3:23. In this second interpretation the Greek could be translated ‘for this reason that everyone…’ a phrase introducing a situation actually occurring which allowed (eternal) death to threaten all mankind. Sin’s power which through Adam made its entrance into the world did in fact bring about eternal death by means of personal sin, itself an acquiescence in Adam’s rebellion (Paul is of course speaking of adults). A further translation is possible ‘by reason of which (i.e. of the death-situation brought about by Adam’s sin) everyone has sinned’.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Gn 3:1 - The Fall. The serpent^a was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that Yahweh God has made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ Footnote ^a says “The serpent is here used as a disguise for a being hostile to God and an enemy of man: this being is identified with the Adversary or the Devil (Jb 1:6+) in the Book of Wisdom, in the NT and in all Christian tradition.”

2.       Ws 2:24 - It was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world,ⁿ as those who are his partners will discover. Footnote ⁿ says ‘devil’ in the LXX renders the Hebr. Satan, cf. Jb 1:6+. Here, the author is interpreting Gn 3, cf. Rv 12:9; 20:2; Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:8. The death introduced by the devil is spiritual, with physical death as its consequence, cf. 1:13+; Rm 5:12f.

3.       Si 25:24 - Sin began with a woman, and thanks to her we all must die.^h Footnote ^h  says “Alluding to the first sin. Apostle Paul also recalls the guilt of Eve, 2 Co 1:3 1 Th 2:14, but cf. Rm 5:1.”

4.       1 Co 15:21-22 - Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man (v. 21).Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ.

Verse 13 says: Sin existed in the world long before the law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’,

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.       Rm 3:23 - Both Jew and pagan sinned and forfeited God’sglory^h. Footnote ^h says ‘Glory’ in OT sense, Ex 24:16+, that is to say God as present to human beings and communicating himself to them more and more, a process that can only reach its climax in the messianic era, cf. Ps 84:9; Is. 40:5, etc.

2.       Rm 6:23 - For the wage paid by sin is death; the present given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3.       Gn 3:17,19 - To the man he said, Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, Accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering you shall get your food from it every day of your life (v.17) With sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the soil, from as you were taken from it; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return (v. 19).

Verses 14 and 15 say: yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law. Adam prefigured^k the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many^l died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift. Footnote  ^k says “‘prefigured’, 1 Co 10:6+: the likeness, therefore, is not complete – hence the comparison, begun in v. 12 and interrupted by the long parenthesis of vv. 13 and 14, becomes a contrast in v. 5.”; and Footnote ^l says “The word ‘many’ means all mankind, cf. v. 18; see Mt 20:28”.

Parallel text for verse 14 are:

1.       Rm 4:15 - Law involves the possibility of punishment for breaking the law - only when there is no law can that be avoided^g Footnote ^g says “Lit. ‘For laws brings anger whereas (var. ‘for’)  where there is no law there is no law-breaking either’.

2.       Rm 7:7 - The function of the Law^e.  Does it follow that the Law itself is sin? Of course not. What I mean is that I should not have known what sin was except for the Law. I should not for instance have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said you shall not covet. Footnote  ^e says “In itself the Law is holy and good since it expresses God’s will, 7:12-15, 1 Tim. 1:8, it is the glorious prerogative of Israel, Rm. 9:4, but cf. 2:14f. And yet it seems to have been a failure: in spite of the law the Jews are sinners like everyone else, Rm. 2:21-27; Ga. 6:3; Ep 2:3, and obedience to it even makes them so confident, Rm 2:17-20; 3:27; 4:2,4; 9:31f; Ph 3:9; Ep 2:8, that they are shut off by it from the grace of Christ, Ga 6:12; Ph 3:18; cf. Ac 15:1; 18:13; 21:21. In short, the Law is powerless to make any man just, Ga 3:11,21f; Rm 3:20; cf. Heb 7:19. Paul’s argument, to which polemic lends a tone of paradox, is that this apparent failure of the Law is due to the nature of the Law itself and to the part it was meant to play in the history of salvation. The Law gives information – it does not give spiritual strength. No law, whether Mosaic or otherwise, not even the primordial command given to Adam, cf. vv 9-11, can prevent sin, in fact the law makes it worse: 1. Because though the law is not the source of sin, it be comes the instrument of sin by arousing concupiscence, Rm 7:7f; 2. Because by informing the mind it increases the fault, which becomes a conscious ‘transgression’, 4:15; 5:13; 3. Because the only remedy law offer is punishment, 4:15, curse, Ga 3:10, condemnation, 2 Co 3:9, death, 2 Co 3:6; hence it can be called ‘the law of sin and death’, Rm 8:2; cf. 1 Co 15:56; Rm 7:13. Nevertheless God willed this defective system, though as a temporary period of schooling, Ga 3:24, to make people conscious of their sin, Rm 3:19f; 5:20; Ga 3:19, and to teach them to look for justification solely to the grace of God, Ga 3:22; Rm 11:32. Since this state of things is only for a time it has to give way before the fulfillment of the promise made, before the Law, to Abraham and his descendants, Ga: 3:6-22; Rm 4. Christ has put an end to the Law, Ep 2:15; cf. Rm 10:4, satisfying its demands by dying a sinner’s death, Ga 3:13; Rm 8:3; Col 2:14, but at the same he ‘fulfills’, cf. Mt 5:17; 3:15, all that is of the positive value in the Law, Rm 3:31; 9:31; 10:4. He emancipates the sons from the guardianship of the tutor, Ga 3:25f. With him they are dead to the Law, Ga 2:19; Rm 7:4-6; cf. Col 2:20, from which he has ‘redeemed’ them, Ga 3:13, in order to make them sons by adoption, Ga 4:5. Through the promised Spirit he gives to mankind thus renewed, Ep 2:15+, the inward strength to do all the good things prescribed by the Law, Rm 8:4f. This order of grace, superseding that of the old Law, may still be called a law, but it is ‘the law of faith’, Rm 3:27, ‘the law of Christ’, Ga 6:2, ‘the law of the Spirit’, Rm 8:1, and love is the essential precept, Ga 5:14; Rm 13:8f; cf. Jm 2:8.”

GIVE AND RECEIVE WITHOUT CHARGING - 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Homily for the 11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Based on Mt 9:36-10:8 (Gospel), Ex 19:2-6 (First Reading) and Rm 5:6-11 (Second Reading)

From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”

GIVE AND RECEIVE WITHOUT CHARGING

“You received without charge, give without charge.” (Mt 10:8)

The Gospel for this  11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A) is taken from Mt 9:36-10:8 .

Verse 36 says: And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.^o Footnote  ^o says “Familiar biblical metaphor: Nb 27:17; 1 K 22:17; Jdt 11:19; Ezk 34:5.”

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.      Mt 14:13 - First miracle of the loaves. When Jesus received this news he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But the people heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot^c. Footnote   ^c says “On shore the crowd hurried to the place the boat was making for.”

2.       Jr 50:6 - Lost sheep, such were my people; their shepherds led them astray, left them wandering in the mountains; from mountain to hill they went, forgetful of their fold.

3.       Zc 10:2 - Because the teraphim utter futile words and te diviners have lying visions^b and publish empty dreams and voice misleading nonsense, naturally the people stray like sheep; they wander because they have no shepherd.^c  Footnote ^b  says  “The teraphim here are instruments of divination , cf. Ezk 21:26. For the practice of divination after the Exile, cf. Ml 3:5, compare Lv 19:31; 20:6.”; and Footnote ^c  says “‘voice’ cor.; ‘console with’ Hebr. ‘stray’ corr.; ‘go their way’ Hebr. ‘wander’ corr.; ‘reply’ Hebr.; ’are distressed’ Greek.”

4.       Mk 6:34 - So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

Verse 37 says: Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the laborers are few.

Parallel text is Lk 10:2 that says: He said to them,^c  ‘The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest. Footnote ^c says “The collection used by Mt and Lk included a missionary discourse parallel with that of Mk 6:8-11. Lk has made use of both these sources, but separately (9:3-5; 10:2-12), whereas Mt has joined them together 10:7-16. Cf. Lk 11:39+; 17:22+.”   

Verse 38 says: so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest’.

 

Parallel text is Jn 4:35-38 that says: Have you not got a saying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you: Look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest!^k Already (v. 35) the reaper is being paid its wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, and thus sower and reaper rejoice together (v. 36). For here the proverbs holds good: one sows, another reaps (v. 37); I sent you to reap a harvest you have not worked for. Others worked for it; and you have come into the rewards of your trouble (v. 38).’^l Footnote  ^k  says “A harvest of souls: the Samaritans who are coming to Jesus, v. 30, are its first-fruits.; and Footnote ^l says “The reapers are the apostles, the sowers those who have  labored before them, especially Jesus.”

Cha. 10, verse 1 says: He summoned his twelve disciples,^aand gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. Footnote  ^a  says “Matthew supposes that the reader already knows about the choice of the Twelve; Mark and Luke mentions it expressly and distinguish the choice from the mission.”

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.       Mk 3:14…and he appointed twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to preach…

2.       Mk 6:7 - Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over unclean spirits…

3.       Lk 9:1 - He summoned the Twelve^a and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. Footnote ^a- says “Add ‘apostles’”.

4.       Mt 8:29+ - They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time^j? Footnote   ^j  says “Until the day of Judgment, the demons are to some extent free to work their mischief on earth, Rv. 9:5; they do this normally by taking possession of men, 12:43-45+. Such possession brings disease with it because disease- consequence of sin, 9:2+- is another manifestation of Satan’s dominion, Lk. 13:16. It is for this reason that the gospel exorcism though sometimes described simply as expulsions, cf. 15:21-28p; Mk. 1:23-28p; Lk. 8:2, often take the form of cures, 9:32-34; 12:22-24p; 17:14-18p; Lk. 13:10-17. By his power over the devils Jesus destroys Satan’s empire, 12:28p; Lk. 10:17-19; cf. Lk.4:6; Jn. 12:31+, and inaugurates the messianic era of which, according to the prophets, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the distinctive mark, Is. 11:2+; Jl. 3:1f. Man may refuse to recognize it, 12:24-32, but the demons see it all too well, cf. this passage and Mk. 1:24p; 3:11p; Lk. 4:41;Ac. 16:17; 19:15. This power to exorcise is given by Jesus to his disciples simultaneously with the power of miraculous healing, 10:18p, with which it is connected, 8:3+; 4:24; 8:16p; Lk. 13:32.”

 Verses 2, 3 and 4  say: These are the names of the twelve apostles:^b first Peter and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Batholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot,^c the one who was to betray him. Footnote  ^b says “Apostle means ‘one sent’”; and Footnote ^c says “‘Thaddeus’ (var. ‘Lebbaeus’) corresponds to ‘Judas (son) of James’ in the list of Lk 6:16 and Ac 1:13. ‘Iscariot’ is commonly taken to mean ‘man of Kerioth’ (a town in Judah, JOs 15:25).”

Parallel texts for verse 2 are:

1.       Mk 3:16-19 - And he appointed the Twelve: Simon to whom   he gave the name Peter (v. 16), James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or ‘Sons of Thunder’ (v. 17); then Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Aphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot (v. 18) and Judas Iscariot, the man who was to betray him (v. 19).^c Footnote ^c  says “Here Mk omits the discourse of Mt 5-7 and Lk 6:20-49, evidently assuming that his readers would be interested more in what Christ was and did than in the minutiae of his teaching with regard to the Jewish Law.”

2.       Lk 6:13-16 - When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’ (v. 13): Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip,   Batholomew (v. 14),  Matthew Thomas, James son of Alpheus,  Simon called the Zealot (v. 15), Judas son of James,^b and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor (v. 16). Footnote ^b  says “Lit. ‘Judas of James’, which could mean ‘bother of James’, cf. Mt 10:4+.”

3.       Ac 1:13…and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James.^o Footnote   ^o says “‘Son’ (of Aplhaeus, of James) is not in Greek. The apostle Jude is not the Jude ‘brother’ of Jesus, cf. Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3, and brother of James (Jude 1). Nor is it likely that the apostle James son of Alphaeus was James brother of the Lord, Ac 12:17; 15:13, etc.”

Verse 5 and 6 say: These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: ‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.^d Footnote  ^d says “Hebraism common in the Bible: the people of Israel. As heirs to the Choice and Promise, the Jews are to be the first to receive the offer of the Messiah’s saving work; but cf. Ac 8:5; 13:5+.”

Parallel texts for verse 5 are:

1.       Mt  15:24 - He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’.

2.       Lk 9:53 - But the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem.^l Footnote ^l  says “The hatred of the Samaritans for the Jews, Jn 4:9+, would show itself particularly towards those on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; hence it was usual to bypass this territory, cf Mt 10:5. Only Lk and Jn (4:1-42) mention Christ’s presence in this schismatic province, cfLk 17:11,16. The early Church was not slow to follow his  example, Ac 8:5-25.”

3.       Jn 4:9  - The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans^e.  Footnote   ^e  says  “Some authorities omit this parenthesis. The Jews hated the Samaritans, Si 50:25-26; Jn 8:48; Lk 9:52-55, cf. Mt 10:5, Lk 10:33; 17:16, and attributed their origin to the importation of five pagan groups, 2 K 17:24-41, who retained some of their loyalty to their old gods, these are symbolized by the ‘five husbands of v. 18.”

Verse 7 says: And as you go, proclaim the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.

Parallel texts for verse 7 are:

1.       Mt 3:2  - ‘Repent’, ^b for the kingdom of heaven ^c is close at hand!... Footnote ^b says “Metanoia, rendered ‘repentance’, inspires a change of heart; ‘conversion’ in the technical sense.”; and Footnote ^c  says “Instead of ‘Kingdom of God’, cf. 4:17+. The phrase is proper to Mt. and reflects the Jewish scruple which substitutes metaphor for the divine name.”

2.       Mt 4:17 - From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven^d is close at hand.” Footnote ^d  says “The sovereignty of God over the chosen people, and trough them over the world, is at the heart of Christ’s preaching as it was the theocratic ideal of the OT. It implies a kingdom of ‘saints’ where God will be truly King because they will acknowledge his royal rights by knowing and loving him. This sovereignty, jeopardized by rebellious sin, is to be reasserted by an act of supreme intervention on the part of God and his Messiah (Dn 2:28+). This is the intervention which Jesus, following John the Baptist (3:2), declares imminent (4:17-23; Lk 4:43). It is to take the form not, as was commonly expected, of a successful nationalist rising (Mk 11:10; LK 19:11; Ac 1:6) but of a purely spiritual movement (Mk 1:34+; Jn 18:36). The redemptive work of Jesus as ‘Son of Man’ (Mt 8:20+) and as ‘servant’ (Mt 8:17+; 20:28+; 26:28+) sets man free from Satan’s rule which opposes God’s (4:8; 8:29+; 12:25-26). Before it achieves its final eschatological realization when the elect will be with the Father in the joy of the heavenly banquet (8:11+; 13:43; 26:29) the kingdom makes an impressive entrance (13:31-33). Its modest beginning is mysterious (13:11) and arouses opposition (13:24-30), it has come unnoticed (12:28; Lk 17:20-21); the development of the kingdom on earth is slow (Mk 4:26-29) and is effected by the Church (Mt 16:18+). By the judgment of God that falls on Jerusalem it is established with power as the kingdom of Christ (Mt 16:28; Lk 21:31) and is preached throughout the world by apostolic missionaries (Mt 10:7; 24:14; Ac 1:3+). When the times comes for the final judgment (13:37-43, 47-50; 25:31-46), the return of Christ in glory (16:27; 25:31) will be the final act that establishes the kingdom which Christ will present to the Father(1 Co 15:24). Until that time the kingdom appears as a free gift of God (20:1-16; 22:9-10; Lk 12:32), accepted by the humble (Mt 5:3; 18:3-4; 19:14,23-24) and the generous (13:44-46; 19:12; Mk 9:47; Lk 9:62; 18:29f), refused by the proud and selfish (21:31-32,43; 22:2-8; 23:13). There is no entering it without the wedding garment  which is the new life (22:11-13; Jn 3:3,5) and not all men are admitted (Mt 8:12; 1 Co 6:9-10; Ga 5:21). One has to be awake so as to be ready when it comes unexpectedly (Mt 25:1-13). On Matthew’s treatment as a guiding idea of his arrangement , see Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels.”

Verse 8 says: Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge

Parallel texts are:

1.       Lk 10:9,11 - Cure those in it who are sick and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you”.

2.       Is 55:1 - Oh, come to the water all who are thirsty; though you have not money, come! Buy corn without money, and eat,^a and, at no cost, wine and milk. Footnote  ^a says “Hebr. adds ‘come and buy’ absent from Greek and DSIa.”

3.       Ac 8:20 - Peter answered, ‘May your silver be lost forever, and you with it, for thinking that money could buy what God has given for nothing!^g Footnote   ^g  says “The Holy Spirit is supremely the gift of God, cf. 2:38; 10:45; 11:17; Lk 11:9,13; the idea recurs in the Veni Creator.”

The First Reading is taken from Ex 19:2-6.

Verse 2 says: From Rephidim they set out again; and when they reached the wilderness of Sinai, there in the wilderness of Sinai,^d there in the wilderness they pitched their camp; there facing the mountain Israel pitched their camp. Footnote  ^d says “Tradition locates Mt. Sinai in the southern  region of the Sinai peninsula at Jebel Musa (7,500 ft.) the northern rock face of which dominates a barren plain surrounded by mountain: the locality admirably satisfies the data of the text. It was at Sinai, called Horeb or Mount of God in the ‘Elohistic’ tradition (Dt.: Horeb), that Moses received his vocation, Ex. 3:1-4, 17 and had his second meeting with Jethro, Ex. 18. At Sinai the Law was given, Ex. 19-20; Nb 1-10, (cf. Lv 27-34) and the Covenant concluded, Ex. 24:3-8. At Sinai God placed himself at the head of his people for the journey to the Promised Land, Dt. 33:2 and Ps 68:8,17 (cf. Jg 5:4f; Hab 3:3f); it was to Sinai that Elijah the prophet returned as to the pure spring of divine revelation, 1 K 19, cf Si 48:7. Sinai stands for the Old Covenant that was eventually superseded, Ga 4:24f.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Ex 18:5 - So Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, came with his son-in-law’s wife and children to the wilderness where his camp was, at the mountain of God.^d Footnote ^d  says “Horeb, 3:1.”

2.       Nb 33:15 - They left Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.

3.       Dt 33:2  He said: ‘Yahweh came from Sinai.^b For them, after Seir, he rose on the horizon, after Mount Paran he shone forth. From them he came, after the mustering^c at Kadesh, from his zenith as far as the foothills. Footnote ^b says “A verse difficult to interpret and archaic in vocabulary. Yahweh rises, as a star rises, and leads the tribes from Sinai through the desert to the foothills of Mount Pisgah, cf. 3:17 and 4:49.”;  and Footnote ^c  says “i.e. the gathered clans.”

4.       2 K 17:34 - They still follow their old rites even now. They did not worship Yahweh^o and did not conform to his statutes or ritual, or the law or commandments, which Yahweh had laid down for the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel. Footnote ^o  says “Faithless Israel are meant here, as in vv. 14f, not (as in the preceding verse) pagans. ‘his statutes’ conj.; ‘their statutes’ Hebr.”

5.       Si 24:23 - I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth like mist.^b Footnote ^b  says “Wisdom is identified with the spirit of God hovering over the waters, Gn 1:2.”

6.       Si 45:3 - At the word of Moses he made the miracles stop, he raised him high in the respect of kings; he gave him commandments for his people, and showed him something of his glory.

7.       Jr 31:32 - but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, so I had to show them who was master. It is Yahweh who speaks.

8.       Ezk 16:18 - You have taken your embroidered clothes and put to them on the images, and the oil and incense which are rightly mine you have offered to them.

   

Verse 3 says: Moses then went up to God, and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel,

Parallel text for verse 3 is Ex 24:15 that says: And Moses went up the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain.

Verse 4 says: “You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.       Dt 4:34 - Has any god ventured to go to take to himself one nation from the midst of another, by ordeals, signs  wonders, war, with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors - all this that Yahweh your God did for you before your eyes in Egypt?

2.       Dt 29:1-2 - Moses called the whole of Israel together and said to them: ‘You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to his servants and to his whole land (v. 1), the great ordeals your eyes have witnessed, the signs and those great wonders (v. 2).

3.       Dt 32:11 - Like eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out its wing to hold him he supports him on his pinions.

4.       Is 46:3 - ‘Listen to me, House of Jacob, all you who remain of the House of Israel, you have been carried since birth, whom I carried since the time you were born.

Verse 5 says: From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. ^e Footnote ^e  says  “Hence God can choose whom he will.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Dt 10:14-15  - ‘To Yahweh your God belong indeed heaven and the heaven of heavens,^b the earth and all it contains (v. 14); yet it was on your fathers that Yahweh set his heart for love of them, and after them of all the nations chose their descendants, you yourselves, up to the present day (v. 15). Footnote ^b  says “In Hebr. The genitive is used to express the superlative. The ‘heaven of heavens’ means the highest heavens.”

2.       Jr 9:12 - Yahweh has said, ‘This is because they have forsaken my Law which I put before them and have not listened to my voice or followed it…

   

Verse 6 says: ‘I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.^f These are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’ Footnote  ^f  says “The Covenant makes Israel God’s sacred possession Jr 2:2, a consecrated people, Dt 7:6; 26:19 that is to say holy (for the same Hebr. word means ‘sacred’, ‘consecrated’, ‘holy’) as its God is holy, Lv 19:2, cf. 11:44f; 20:7,26. It is also a nation of priests, cf. Is 61:6, because what is sacred is by that very fact related to the ritual worship. The promise is to have its complete fulfillment in ‘the Israel of God, the Church; the faithful are called ‘saints’, Ac 9:13+, and in union with Christ the Priest they offer God a sacrifice of praise, 1 P 2:5,9; Rv 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.”

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.       Nb 16:3 - These joined forces against Moses and Aaron saying to them, ‘You take too much on yourselves! The whole community and all its members are consecrated, and Yahweh lives among them. Why set yourselves higher than the community of Yahweh?’

2.       Dt 14:2 - For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth.

3.       Ps 33:12 - Happy the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen for his heritage.

4.       Ws 10:15 - A holy people and blameless race,^m this she delivered from a nation of oppressors. Footnote ^m   says “‘holy and blameless’ because the chosen people, cf. Ex 19:6+. The author chooses to disregard Israel’s acts of infidelity, unlike Ps 106; Ac 7:2-53.”

5.       Jr 2:3 - Israel was sacred to Yahweh, the first-fruits of his harvest; anyone who ate of this had to pay for it, misfortune came to them-it is Yahweh who speaks.”’

6.       Rv 5:10…and made them a line of kings and priests, to serve our God and to rule the world’^h Footnote   ^h- says Lit. ‘you made them into a kingdom and priests for our God and they will reign on earth’ (or ‘over pagans’); Vulg. ‘you have made us…we shall reign…’

The Second Reading is taken from Rm 5:6-11.

Verses 6 and 7 say: We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men.

It is not easy to die even for a good man-though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die-

Parallel texts for verse 6 are:

1.       Rm 3:26 - Then, for the present age,^m by showing positively that he is just,ⁿ and that he justifies everyone who believes in Jesus. Footnote ^m – says “This ‘present age’ is in God’s plan of salvation the ‘time appointed’, Ac 1:7+, for Christ’s redemptive work, Rm 5:6; 11:30; 1 Tm 2:6; Tt 1:3, which comes in the appointed time, Ga 4:4+, once and for all, Heb 7:27+, and inaugurates the eschatological era. Cf Mt 4:17p; 16:3p; Lk 4:13; 19:44; 21:8; Jn 7:6,8.”; and Footnote  ⁿ– says “i.e. exercising his (saving, cf 1:17+) justice, as he had promised, by justifying man.”

2.       1 P 3:18 - Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins,^g died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life… Footnote  ^g  says “‘sins’; vulg. ‘our sins’, Om.to ‘God’”.

Verses 8 and 9 say: but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Having died to make us righteous,^g is it likely that he would now fail to save us from God’s anger? 

 

Footnote  ^g says “Lit. ‘Being justified in his blood’.”

Parallel texts for verse 8 are:

1.       Rm 8:32 - Since God did not spare his Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give.

2.       Jn 15:13 - A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.

3.       1 Jn 4:10,19- This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away (v. 10). We are to love, then, because he loved us first (v. 19).

Verses 10 and 11 say: When we were reconciled to God by   the death of his Son, Indeed, if, we were still enemies; now that we had been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son. Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust I God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, though whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

Parallel texts for verse 10 are:

1.       1 Th 1:10 - And how you are now waiting for Jesus, his Son, whom he raised from the dead, to come from heaven to save us from the retribution^c which is coming. Footnote ^c says  “Var. ‘called you’.”

2.       2 Co 5:18 - It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation.

Homily: 

The gospel first starts with Mt 9:36-38 about pitying the people because they were like ‘sheep without a shepherd’. It continues with Mt. 6:1-8 about choosing the twelve apostles, sending them out to preach the coming kingdom of heaven and commanding them to give and receive without charging.

The First Reading is from Ex. 19:2-6 about Israel’s stay in the wilderness of Sinai, with Moses’ subsequent going up the mountain to be charged by Yahweh to tell the people that Yahweh will own them as his very own, to be a kingdom of priests and consecrated nation if they will obey and keep his covenant with him.

At the same time, the Second Reading, from Rm 5:6-11, tells about the proof of God’s love for man because Jesus Christ died for sinners to justify and free them from his anger, thus reconciling and saving them by the life of Jesus Christ, his son.

In summary, both the 1^st and 2^nd Reading focuses on man’s fortune and privilege to be an object of God’s love: being regarded as a kingdom of priests and consecrated (1^st Reading), and then justified, reconciled  and saved through Jesus Christ (2^nd Reading).

The twelve apostles were chosen, sent and commanded to preach the coming of the kingdom of heaven, announcing that people are to be consecrated, justified and reconciled as members of the kingdom through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ commanded them to do this work for free, without charging any amount for giving and receiving this news of the kingdom of heaven. This is very well said in 2 Co 5:1 8, as:  “It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation.”

Another matter: Why should we be patient with others? Look at the ten fingers in our hands. They are not all the same. Everyone is different from each other. If all of them were the same, then it would be impossible for us to do things that we have to do, like working with our hands. Similarly, people differ from each other, they are not all the same. If all were the same, then it would not be able to do the different functions we have at home, at work and in society. So let us be patient with others who are not like us. They may be different from us but we need them to do other things which we cannot ourselves do.

Let us help them and love them. Let us not charge others for the services we render to them. Let us complement each other and not quarrel. Let us love others even if they are our enemies because we need them too.

Helping hands: We have two hand: one is used to help ourselves; and the other is to help others. When it becomes impossible to help ourselves or others, then we can simply fold both hands in prayer to ask the help from above (Bitoy, from the sitcom:”Pepito Manoloto”).

MATTHEW’S CALL - 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Homily for the 10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Based on Mt 9:9-13 (Gospel), Ho 6:3-6 (First Reading) and Rm 4:18-25 (Second Reading)

From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”

MATTHEW’S CALL

“He saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me’.” (Mt 9:9)

The Gospel for this  10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A) is taken from Mt 9:9-13 with the title: “The call of Matthew.” Parallel texts are:

1.       Mk 2:13-14 - He went out again to the shore of the lake;^a and all the people came to him, and he taught them (v. 13). As he was walking on he saw Levi the son of Alpheus, sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me’. And he got up and followed him. Footnote  ^a says “The ‘Sea of Galilee’ (Lake of Tiberias’).”

2.       Lk 5:27-28 - When he went out after this, he noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me’ (v. 27). And leaving everything he got up and followed him (v. 28).

Verse 9 says: As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew^d sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me’. And he got up and followed him. Footnote ^d says “Called Levi by Mk and Lk.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mt 4:19 - And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’.

2.       Jn 1:43 - The next day, after Jesus had decided to leave for Galilee, he met Philip and said ‘Follow me’.

2^nd Title:  “Eating with sinners.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mk 2:15-17 - When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at the table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers (v. 15). When the scribes of the Pharisees party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? (v. 16). When Jesus heard this he said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners (v. 17).

2.       Lk 5:29-32 - In his honor Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others (v. 29). The Pharisees and scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? (v. 30)Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick (v. 31). I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance (v. 32). 

Verse 10 says: While he was at dinner in his house, it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners^e came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples.’ Footnote ^e says “Those whose moral conduct or disreputable profession, cf. 5:46+, rendered ‘unclean’ and socially outcast.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mt 11:19 - The son of man came, eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’^h Footnote ^h    says “Var. ‘by her children’, cf. Lk 7:35. Like petulant children who will play none of the games suggested (in this case they refuse to play either at weddings or at funerals) the Jews reject all God’s advances whether through the stern penance of John or through the gentle courtesy of Jesus. In spite of this, God’s wise design carries through, independently of anything extrinsic to itself, and so its success is its own vindication.”

2.       Lk 15:1-10 - The tax collectors and sinners, meanwhile, were seeking his company to hear what he had to say (v. 1), and the Pharisees and scribes complained. “This man’ the said, ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them (v. 2).” So he spoke this parable to them: (v. 3)‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it? (v. 4). And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders (v. 5). And then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors? Rejoice with me,” he would say ‘I have found my sheep that was lost (v. 6).’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance (v. 7). ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, is she  lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?(v. 8). And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors? Rejoice with me,” she would say ‘I have found the drachma I lost (v. 9).’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner(v. 10).’

3.       Lk 19:1-10 - He entered Jericho and was going through the town (v. 1), When a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance;  he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man (v. 2). He was anxious to see what kind of a man Jesus was; but he  was short and could not see him for the crowd (v. 3); so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way (v. 4). When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and spoke to him: “Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today (v. 5).” And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully (v. 6). They all complained when they saw what was happening. “He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house” they said (v. 7). But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, “Look, sir, I am going to give  half of my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount (v. 8).”^a And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham (v. 9); ^b For the Son of Man has come to seek out and to save what was lost (v. 10).” Footnote  ^a  says “Fourfold restitution was imposed by the Jewish law (Ex 21:37) for one case only; Roman law demanded it of all convicted thieves. Zaccheus goes further: he acknowledges the obligation in the case of any injustice he may have been responsible for.”; and Footnote ^b  says “Notwithstanding his despised profession. No social rank excludes ‘salvation’, cf. 3:12-14. All the Jewish privileges follow from ‘sonship of Abraham,’ cf. 3:8; Rm 4:11f; Ga 3:7f.

Verses 11 and 12 say: When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When he heard this he replied, “It is not the healthy  who need a doctor, but the sick do.

Parallel text for verse 11 is 1 Tm 1:15 that says: Here is a saying that you can rely onⁱ and nobody should doubt: That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them. Footnote   ⁱ  says “Lit. ‘faithful is the word (or saying): this is one of the characteristic phrases of the Pastoral Letters, cf. 3:1;  4:9; 2 Tm 2:11; Tt 3:8.”

Verse 13 says: Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.’^f And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners.  Footnote ^f says “To the exact performance of the Law’s external  demands God prefers the inward quality of genuine compassion. It is a favorite theme of the prophets, Am 5:21+.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mt 12:7 - And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.

2.       Ho 6:6 - Since what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.

3.       Mt 18:11  - ‘For the Son of Man has come to save what was lost.’

The First Reading is taken from  Ho 6:3-6. are

Verse 3 says: ^cLet us set ourselves to know Yahweh; that he will come is as certain as the dawn; he will come to us as showers come, like spring rains watering the earth.’ Footnote  ^c says “Text corr.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Dt 11:14 - I^b will give your land rain in season, autumn rain and spring, so that you may harvest your corn, your wine, your oil. Footnote ^b says “Here it is God speaking; the transition is abrupt”.

2.       Dt 32:2 - May my teaching fall like the rain, may my word drop down like the dew, like showers on fresh grass and light rain on the turf.

3.       Ps 72:6…welcome as rain that falls on the pasture,^d and showers to thirsty soil. Footnote ^d  says The versions translate ‘fleece’, cf. Jg 6:37f

4.       Ps 143:6 - I stretch out my hands, like thirsty ground I yearn for you.

Verse 4 says: What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah?^e This love of yours is like a morning cloud, like the dew that quickly disappears. Footnote  ^e says: “The original text may have read ‘Israel’ in synonymous parallelism with ‘Ephraim’, cf. 5:3.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Ho 13:3…like the dew that quickly disappears, like the chaff whirled^d from the threshing floor, like smoke escaping through the window. Footnote ^d  says “‘whirled’, corr.”

2.       Ps 78:36 - But though they outwardly flattered him and used their tongues to lie to him…

3.       Ws 11:22 - In your sight the whole world is like a grain of dust that tips the scales^p,like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground

Footnote  

Verse 5 says: His judgment will rise like the light,^d. This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets, why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth. Footnote  ^d says ‘like the light’ Greek; ‘light’ Hebr. ‘his judgment’ corr.; ‘thy judgments’.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Ho 12:11 - I will speak to the prophets,^o I will increase the visions^p and through the prophets I will deal out death.^q  Footnote   ^o says “‘I will speak… I will make’; or ‘I spoke…I made’, ‘to the prophets’ Greek; ‘on’ or ‘against the prophets’ Hebr.”; Footnote ^p says “Prophecy and vision are a sign of God’s favor, Dt. 18:9-22; Ps 74:9; Lm 2:9; Nb 12:2-8; Ex 33:11.”; and Footnote ^q  says “As in the case of Elijah, 1 K 18:40. See also Ho 6:5a; Jr 1:10; Is 6:9-13; Ezk 3:17-20, etc. Alternative translation ‘I shall speak (or ‘I spoke’) in parables.”

2.       Jr 1:10 - Look, today I am setting you over nations and over kingdoms, to tear up and to knock down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

3.       Jr 5:14 - Hence- so says Yahweh, the God of Sabaoth-for saying this: now I will make my words a fire in your mouth, and this people wood, for the fire to devour.

Verse 6 says: Since what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Ho 2:21-22 - I will betroth you to myself for ever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness^r and love (v. 21); I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know Yahweh.^s Footnote  ^q says “God takes back his unfaithful wife with the fervor of first love, and showers her (cfGn 24:53; 34:12) with spiritual gifts.”; Footnote ^r says “The primary meaning of this word (hesed) is that of a bond, or contract. When used of human relationship, union, loyalty, especially when there are the outcome of a treaty. Used of God, the term means his faithfulness to his covenant and the kindness he therefore shows his chosen people (in Ex 34:6). Used by Hosea in the context of married love, the word assumes and from then on retains a still warmer significance: it means the tender love God has for his people, Ps 136; Jer 31:3; etc., and the benefits deriving from it, Ex 20:6; Dt 5:10; 2 S 22:51; Jr 32:18; Ps 18:50. But this divinehesed calls for corresponding hesed in man (Ho 6:6), consisting of self-giving, loving trust, abandonment, deep affection, ‘piety’, a love (in short) which is joyful submission to the will of God and an active charity to fellowmen, Ho 4:2; 6:6. This ideal, expressed in many of the Psalms, will later be that of the Hasidim, or ‘Hasidaeans’, cf 1 M 2:42+.”; and Footnote^s says “In Hosea ‘knowledge of Yahweh’ and hesed go together 2:21-22; 4:2; thi ‘knowledge’ is therefore not merely intellectual. God ‘makes himself known’ to man hen he engages himself to him by covenant and shows his love (hesed) for him by the benefits he confers; similarly, man ‘knows God’ when he loyally observes God’s covenant shows gratitude for God’s gifts, and returns love for love. Cf. Jb 21:14; Pr 2:5; Is 11:2; 58:2. In the wisdom literature ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’ are practically synonymous.”

2.       Ho 8:13 - Israel has rejected the good; the enemy^d will hunt him down. Footnote  ^d says “Assyria.”

3.       1 S 15:22 - But Samuel replied:^d ‘Is the pleasure of Yahweh in holocausts and sacrifices or in obedience to the voice of Yahweh? Yes, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness better that the fat of rams. Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime of terpahim.^e Footnote  ^d  says “Samuel does not condemn sacrificial practice as a whole, but obedience of the heart is what pleases God, not mere ritual. To practice the second against God’s will is to do homage to something that is nor God, to be guilty of idolatry, a crime here suggested by ‘sorcery’ and the mention of teraphim, tutelary idols of houses and property, Gn 31:19,30f; 1 S 19:13. On consulting teraphim, cf. Ez 21:21.”; and Footnote ^e says “‘a crime of teraphim’ Symmachus (Symmachus the Ebionite (late 2nd century), author of one of the Greek versions of the Old Testament).”

4.       Heb 10:9…and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second.

5.       Dn 3:39 - But by the contrite soul, the humbled spirit be as acceptable to you as holocausts of rams and bullocks, as thousands of fattened lambs: such let  our sacrifice be to you today, and may it be your will that we follow you wholeheartedly, since those who put their trust in you will not be disappointed.

6.       Am 5:21 - I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals.

7.       Mt 9:13 - Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.’^f And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners. Footnote   ^f says “To the exact performance of the Law’s external  demands God prefers the inward quality of genuine compassion. It is a favorite theme of the prophets, Am 5:21+.”

8.       Mt 12:7 - And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.

The Second Reading is taken from Rm 4:18-25. are

Verses 18 and 19 say: Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars. Even the thought that his body was past fatherhood- he was about a hundred years old- and Sarah too old to become a mother, did not shake his belief ⁱ. Footnote ⁱ says “Lit. ‘Though he considered his own body dead (and that Sarah’s womb was dead) it was with unshaken faith’.Text. Rec. and Vulg. ‘His faith was not shaken, nor did he give a thought to his own body that was dead already’.”

Parallel texts for verse 19 are:

1.       Gn 15:5 - Then taking him outside he said: Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can. Such will your descendants,’ he told him.

2.       Gn 17:1,17 - When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Bear yourself blameless in my presence (v. 1), Abraham bowed to ground,  and he laughed,^g thinking to himself, “Is a child to be born to a man who is one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?” (v. 17). Footnote ^g  says “Abraham’s laughter is to be echoed by Sarah’s 18:12, and Ishmael’s 21:9 (See also 21:6); each is an allusion to the name Isaac, abbreviated form of Yshq-El which means ‘May God smile, be kind’ or ‘has smiled, has been kind’. Abraham’s laughter is a sign not so much of unbelief as of surprise at the extraordinary announcement; his mention of Ishmael, present heir-apparent to the Promise, is an implicit request for reassurance.”

3.       Heb 11:11 - It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that who had made the promise would be faithful to it

   

Verses 20, 21 and 22 say: Since God has promise it, Abraham either refused to deny it or even to doubt it but drew strength from faith^j and gave glory to God convinced that God had  power to do what he had promised. This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him’. Footnote   ^j says “Faith is all-powerful, Mk 9:23. It shares in the divine omnipotence itself, cf 2 Co 12:9-10.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mk 9:23  - ‘If you can?’ retorted Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for anyone who has faith.’

2.       Heb 11:1 - Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the of the realities that at present remain unseen.

3.       Jr 32:17 - Ah, Lord Yahweh, you have made the heavens and the earth with your great power and outstretched arm.

4.       Lk 1:37 - For nothing is impossible to God.

Verse 22 says: Scripture however does not refer only to him but to us as well when it says that his faith was thus ‘considered’.

Parallel text for verse 23 is 1 Co 10:6 that says: These things all happened as warning ^e for us, not to have the wicked lusts for forbidden things that they had. Footnote   ^e says “Lit. ‘types’ (tupoi). The purpose in the events intended by God, was to prefigure in the history of Israel, the spiritual realities of the messianic age (which are known as ‘anti-types’, 1 P. 3:21, but cf. Heb. 9:24). These ‘typological’ (or less accurately, ‘allegorical’, Ga.4:24) meanings in the OT narrative though.”

Verse 24 says: our faith too will be ‘considered’ if we believe I him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Parallel text is Rm 1:4 that says: It is about Jesus Christ our Lord who is the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that is in him, was proclaimed^c Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead.^d Footnote  ^c  says  “Vulg. ‘predestined’.”; and Footnote ^d says “For Paul Christ rose only because God raised him, 1 Th. 1:10; 1 Co. 6:14; 15:15; 2 Co. 4:14; Ga. 1:1; Rm. 4:24; 10:9; Ac. 2:24+; cf. 1 P. 1:21, thus displaying his ‘power’, 2 Cor. 13:4; Rm. 6:4; Ph. 3:10; Col. 2:12; Ep. 1:19f; Heb. 7:16;  and because God raised him to life through the Holy Spirit, Rm. 8:11. Christ is established in glory as Kyrios, Ph 2:9-11+; Ac 2:36; Rm 14:9, deserving anew, this time in virtue of his messianic work, the name he had from eternity, ‘son of God’, Ac 13:33, Heb 1:5; %:5. Cf. Rm 8:11+; 9:5+.

Verse 25 says: Jesus who was put to death for our sins and raised to le to justify us.^k Footnote ^k says “‘Justice’, or ‘righteousness’, is in effect the initial sharing in the life of the risen Christ, 6:4; 8:10, etc.; Apostle Paul never isolates the death of Jesus Christ from his resurrection.” 

Parallel text of verse is that says:

1.       Is 53:5-6 - Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed (v. 5). We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way; and Yahweh burdened him with the sins of us all (v. 6).

2.       1 Co 15:17 - And if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins.