FIRST READING: Jeremiah 31:7-9. Thus says the Lord: "Sing aloud with, gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give, praise, and say, 'The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.' Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. EXPLANATION: On Jeremiah, see the fifth Sunday of Lent. The prophet Jeremiah lived and preached during a troublesome and sad period of the Chosen People's history. Israel, the northern kingdom, had been overrun by Assyria in 721 and the people were taken into exile. Judah, the southern kingdom, survived until 587 when it was captured by Babylonia and the people were taken there to live a life of exile. The prophet told them that they had brought it all on themselves because of their disloyalty to their kind God who had given them this Promised Land to be their home. In today's excerpts, the prophet has changed from denunciation to consolation. He is speaking to Israel (the northern tribes) and promising them that the good God will lead a "remnant" of them out of exile and establish them once more in their own homeland. God will do this because, notwithstanding their forgetfulness of him, he is still a father to Israel.sing...Jacob: Jacob is another name for Israel (Gn. 32: 28). There is reason for songs and shouts of joy in store for Israel.
chief of the nations: It is another description of Israel---the principal nation in God's eyes, as he says in verse 9: "Ephraim is my first-born."
Lord has saved: The people who will sing with joy will declare why God has saved---brought back---his people.
remnant of Israel: Many would have become lost among the Gentiles during the exile, a (small) portion who retained their faith would return.
north...earth: Assyria was north-east of Palestine---it was at the end of the earth, in the estimation of Jeremiah and his contemporaries.
blind...travail: The return from exile will be so aided by God that even the least capable of traveling will be part of the caravan : for God will assist them miraculously.
weeping they shall come: The C.C.D. and J.B. have: "They departed in tears"---that is, when going into exile, but they shall return rejoicing. This fits the situation better---why should they weep when leaving exile?
walk...water: the journey homewards will be through miles of desert, but just as in the first exodus God supplied the Israelites miraculously with water, so in this second exodus he will act even more generously---they shall travel along the banks of continuously-running streams.
shall not stumble: God will smooth the path for them---there will be no hindrance in their way to hit or delay them.
father to Israel: Notwithstanding their past disloyalty he is still their father and still loves his children.
Ephraim first-born: Ephraim was the leading tribe in the northern kingdom and is often used in the prophets as a synonym for Israel. God loves Israel just as a father has a special love for his first-born son. APPLICATION: While granting that the prophet uses some hyperbole in his description of the return of the "remnant" of Israel, as he also does in describing the return of Judah in the following chapters, the fact that God did forgive and bring back such unworthy children is proof beyond compare of his infinite mercy and love. His Chosen People in both the northern and southern kingdom (Israel and Judah) had insulted and betrayed him for centuries, before he allowed the pagan nations they imitated to take them into captivity. They were the very people to whom he had been a kind father for centuries. He had brought them out of Egypt, set them up in Canaan---a country he gave them to be their own, had protected them again and again from aggressive enemies, yet these ungrateful ones forgot all this and abandoned the living God for idols of wood and stone. For generations he tolerated their apostasy; he sent his prophets to recall them to their senses, but in vain; finally, as a last resort, he allowed both kingdoms to be overrun by pagan powers who took his people as slaves into exile. Although his Chosen People had abandoned him, he did not abandon them. He watched over them in exile and when he found that their exile had wrought a change of heart in some of his rebellious children, he brought them back to their homeland where once more they could be his elected ones. There in the Promised Land of Canaan they remained until the time was ripe for the sending of his divine Son on earth---in the human nature which he was to take from these same Chosen People, as he had promised to Abraham and his descendants. This prophecy of Jeremiah, then, foretelling the return of a remnant of the Chosen People from exile is not merely a bit of Bible history which we should learn, it is a reminder to us Christians that God was thinking of us and preparing the way for our salvation centuries before Christ came on earth. According to God's long-standing promise: the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, a son of David; he would be born in Bethlehem. But if some of the Chosen People had not been brought back from exile this could not have happened. Thus this return of the exiles, foretold by Jeremiah and later effected by God, was his preparation for the sending of Christ among us to be our Savior. The first lesson we must learn from this bit of Bible history is, that God was planning for us and thinking of us from all eternity. We are not mere blobs of humanity groping our way in the dark on earth; we are individual human beings, very important in the eyes of God; individuals for whom he has planned a happiness, and he has been planning it from all eternity. The eighteen centuries of God's dealings with his Chosen People, as described in the Old Testament, are but a short chapter of the history of God's planning for our eternal happiness. However, it is a short chapter from which we can learn so much of his loving concern for us. If God has thought and planned for so long for our eternal happiness, surely we should be self-interested enough to make this, our eternal happiness, the governing thought of our short lives. We, Christians, can surely "sing with gladness" today, as the prophet tells us, for the merciful and loving God has saved us. He has put us on the straight path to heaven, on a path made smooth and easy by the life, death and resurrection of his beloved Son whom he sent to lead us back to our merciful Father. There is a second lesson for all of us in this prophecy of Jeremiah. It is: God's mercy is without limit and he is ready to bestow it on us at the first sign we give him that we need it. Most of us have offended God and perhaps deserted him for long periods. Like the Chosen People, we did not appreciate all he had done and was doing for us. We were unfaithful to him and went after worldly idols perhaps, getting ourselves swamped in worldly ambitions and pleasures. But we are dealing with the same God of infinite mercy and forgiveness who brought back the unworthy Chosen People from the exile that their sins had brought on them. Can we have any doubt that he will bring us, too, back from that self-induced exile which our sins imposed on us? He is waiting for our word of petition, our humble request for forgiveness to take us back to his fatherly bosom. In fact, he is sending out his fatherly appeals to us to return to the path of virtue. He is sending them in many ways and guises, telling us that he is still our Father---that we are his first-born. Today's reading is one of these loving calls. There may be other calls for us but there may not; let us not ignore this one---our eternal future depends on our response.
SECOND READING: Hebrews 5:1-6. Every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts, and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee"; as he says also in another place, "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek."EXPLANATION: Today's reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews is a continuation of last Sunday's theme: Jesus is our High Priest. The high priest of the Old Testament was the chief intermediary between the Chosen People and God. He brought their petitions and their repentance into God's presence through the temple sacrifices. He did not choose this office for himself, he was called by God to it through his ancestor Aaron, the first high priest of the Old Testament. Christ is our High Priest, our intermediary with God. He, too, did not take this office on himself---it was given him by God the Father, as the psalms show.
high...men: Aaron, and his descendants in the direct line were chosen from among their fellow-Jews to represent all the Chosen People in the offering of sacrifices to God. Christ is chosen from men in general, for he is the intermediary between all mankind and God.
for sins: There were other sacrifices besides those offered to make atonement for sins, but Hebrews is connecting the high priest especially with the Day of Atonement (see chapter 9): when the only sacrifices offered were sacrifices for the sins of the people.
can deal gently: The high priest of the Old Testament could understand the failings and weaknesses of his people for he was one of them. The author of Hebrews says that our High Priest, Jesus, is able too to sympathize with all our weaknesses for he was tempted, as we are, yet without sinning (see last Sunday).
for his own sins: On the Day of Atonement the Jewish high priest offered sacrifices of atonement for his own sins and the sins of the people. In this Jesus differed: he had no sins to atone for, his sacrifice was for our sins.
Christ...himself: Like the Old Testament high priests who received this honor from God through Aaron, Christ was given this honor (which entailed humiliation and suffering) by his Father.
Thou art my son: The author now proves that it was God his Father who made him our High Priest by quoting two psalms: 2: 7 and 110: 4. In the first quotation God proclaims Christ to be his Son and in the second Christ is declared to be a priest forever. It was not from his sacrifice of himself on the cross alone, but from this sacrifice crowned by his resurrection and exaltation, that his priesthood was made perfect and permanent (see 9: 24).
order of Melchizedek: Melchizedek was king and priest in the Jebusite city of Jerusalem when Abraham returned from his victory over the king of Elam and his associates (Gn. 14: 18). He blessed Abraham and Abraham offered him tithes of all the booty he had taken. Hebrews stresses this fact to show that Christ, who is said in this psalm to be "a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," was therefore superior to the Levitical priesthood---since they in their ancestor Abraham offered tithes to Melchizedek. Whatever may be thought about this king's priesthood that of Christ was forever (see 6: 20 and the following chapters). APPLICATION: Through the incarnation of his divine Son, God has given us a High Priest who offered, once and for all, his own body on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He entered the real holy of holies on our great day of atonement and will remain there as our intermediary with the Father until the last man has been saved. It is of this basic truth of our Christian faith that the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us today. As the author was writing to Judaeo-Christians, who knew the Jewish cultic regulations of the temple in Jerusalem, he uses terms connected with the temple cult to bring home to his readers the full meaning that the death and glorification of Christ have for them. It was God himself who appointed Aaron, Moses' mouthpiece, to be the first high priest to have charge of the services of the Tent of the Meeting, when the Israelites fled from Egypt. His eldest son was to succeed him as high priest, and his other sons were also priests. This was to continue down through the ages. The high priest was the intermediary between the Chosen People and God. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he offered the sacrifice which made atonement for all the sins of the people. The high priest, therefore, had a very special place---the most important religious position---in the Jewish community. The Jewish converts to Christianity would understand very well what the author of this epistle meant when he called Christ our High Priest, appointed by God to make atonement for all the sins of the world. They already knew how this atonement was made. They knew who this high priest was---the Son of God who took human nature in which he could make this sacrifice which was of infinite value, and surpassed all the sacrifices offered by all the high priests of Jewish history. They knew that Christ's sacrifice on the cross was for all men---not for the Jews alone, but for each and every member of the human race for all time. We, Christians of the 20th century, know all of this as did the Christians of the seventies of the 1st century. We know God has planned from all eternity to give us a place in heaven when we die. We know the humiliations and sufferings his divine Son endured so that we could be made worthy of this honor, and therefore we should know how important it is that we do the little expected of us in order to fulfill God's plan for us. Yet, there are many Christians today who are so entangled in the passing things of this world that they have no time or inclination to look to their eternal future. They live and act in this world as if it were to be their eternal world, and have no thought or time to prepare themselves for the future home which God has planned for them. There will be a rude awakening when they are called to judgement. When they realize what they have lost, and when they look back on the follies and foibles on which they spent their days on earth, how they will despise themselves! Today, out of true Christian charity, let us pray that such deluded Christians will be very few in number.
GOSPEL: Mark 10: 46-52. As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy On me!" And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "'Take heart; rise, he is calling you." And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Master, let me receive my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. EXPLANATION: Jesus and his disciples, followed by a great multitude, were on their way from Galilee to Jerusalem. Three times already he had warned his disciples of what dreadful things would happen to him there, but they refused to listen and followed him gladly, expecting very soon to see him as the triumphant head of his new, political, messianic kingdom. On his way through Jericho Jesus worked his last miracle of healing, as recorded in Mark. A blind man called on Jesus as "son of David," that is Messiah. He had such faith and trust in his healing powers that he refused to be silenced by those following Christ. He received the reward of his persevering faith. He was given not only his eyesight but the grace to become a follower of Jesus.
blind...roadside: He heard the noise of the crowd and naturally inquired what was happening. He had most probably heard of the miracles of Jesus in Galilee and Jerusalem, and had become convinced that he was the promised Messiah.
cry...say: He wanted badly to have his eyesight restored to him. Here was the One who could do him this favor. Although he did not know it, this was his last chance; Jesus did not pass through Jericho again.
cried...more: The attempts to prevent him from asking for this miracle only made him all the more determined.
Jesus...called him: Jesus heard his loud call for help and took pity on him. He asked the blind man to repeat his request when he was brought to him.
your faith...well: He believed that Jesus was the Messiah. His open confession that Jesus could heal him earned for him the miraculous restoration of his sight.
followed him: He got the spiritual grace to throw in his lot with Jesus. He did not know where Jesus was going, but he was convinced that he was the Messiah, the son of David, foretold by the prophets and therefore he determined to be one of his followers. That he became an outstanding member of the early Church, where Mark labored and wrote, seems probable from the fact that Mark gives us his name: Bartimaeus, as if the name was known to Mark's readers. Matthew and Luke give the same story but do not give the blind man's name. APPLICATION: This blind man of Jericho was one of the very lucky men in the gospel story. He got the last chance of appealing in person to Jesus for the gift of his eyesight. He used that chance in spite of opposition, his faith and trust in Jesus were so strong that nobody could stop him from expressing them. He made his request while proclaiming his faith. He got, not only what he asked---the physical gift, but a spiritual insight was added as well and he became a faithful follower of Christ. Our Lord had passed through Jericho a few times during his public ministry. Jericho was on the route from Galilee to Jerusalem. Bartimaeus was very probably sitting on the roadside begging for alms on these occasions also, but influenced by the lack of interest of his fellow-citizens he, too, had no time for all this talk about a Messiah and a miracle-worker. In any case, it was only on the occasion of Christ's last journey through Jericho that his faith moved him to appeal aloud for help from the one and only person whom he was convinced could grant him his request. His appeal was heard. There is a deep spiritual lesson for all of us in today's gospel story. Like Bartimaeus, many of us have been sitting by the roadside for years, not moving a foot toward our eternal destination. We have been blind to our true interests; our sole preoccupation seems to be to collect the paltry alms that this world would deign to drop in our laps. But we are even more to be pitied than Bartimaeus---he knew that he was blind; we are not aware of our spiritual blindness---we think everything in the garden is rosy and colorful when we see only the colors we want to see and are blind to the things that really matter. We said above that it is probable that Bartimaeus ignored the passing-by of Jesus on earlier occasions; it is certain that in, our case we have ignored the presence of Jesus in the many reminders he has sent us up to now. That parish retreat we did not attend; that sudden death of a close friend; that illness of a near relative; that car accident from which we miraculously escaped; these and many other incidents are examples of the many times our loving Lord passed close to us---ready to cure our spiritual blindness; but we did not see him. It is possible that our Lord saw Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside on his earlier journeys through Jericho. Perhaps he could not help him, for the blind man was engaged in collecting alms with no thought for the greater gift---the return of his eyesight. It is certain that our Lord has often been near to us, anxious to give us back our spiritual vision. But like Bartimaeus, we were so busy gathering up this world's paltry donations that we did not even think of the far greater grace we needed. In the twenty centuries of our Christian history there have been some who have deliberately shut the eyes of their minds to the many calls to repentance which Jesus sent. This is a danger and a fatal mistake we can all avoid if we learn today's gospel message. This story of the blind man of Jericho was not inspired and preserved for some literary reason, but as an instruction for us. It is read to us today, to make us examine our consciences and see the true state of our spiritual standing in the eyes of God. Are we steadily moving on toward heaven, carrying out daily duties to God and to our neighbor, bearing life's crosses cheerfully---knowing that they come to us from a loving Father as part of our training for heaven? Or are we sitting idly by the roadside, engrossed and enmeshed in the affairs of this world, oblivious of our real purpose in life and turning deaf ears and blind eyes to all the danger signals that Christ our Savior regularly is sending out to us? For some among us today this may be Christ's last call. Will we be so utterly disinterested in our own eternal welfare as to ignore it? For all of us it is a call to put our house in order. We may not have been sitting by the roadside, but have we been keeping faithfully to the road to heaven---marked out for us by our Christian faith? Let us all call on Jesus, son of David and Son of God today, to give us the grace to see ourselves as we are---and then to see ourselves as, we ought to be. "Master, let me receive my sight."-b423 Click to return to our Home page
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please enter comments in a calm, clear, cogent manner