Commentary – 2nd Sunday of Lent Year B
March 1, 2015
First Reading – Genesis 22.1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am!” he replied.
Then God said:
“Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you.”
When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven,
“Abraham, Abraham!”
“Here I am!” he answered.
“Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the messenger.
“Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
“I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing—
all this because you obeyed my command.”
Commentary
TO BE READ THROUGH THE EYES OF FAITH
There are unfortunately two ways to read this text: it can be read as if God is asking Abraham to commit some appalling act just to see if Abraham is capable of obeying God... and only then comes the command: "Do not lay your hand on the boy" ... To which we want to say: It was about time! And from this line of thought comes the terrible conclusion that because Abraham behaved well, because he obeyed the command ("here I am" he says twice) God promises him the moon. But that is a purely pagan reading of this text! It imagines a God who is waiting to trap us, and then rewards or punishes us with impunity, and not God as God really is.
Through the lens of faith the text paints a different picture - just as we look at someone we love through the "eyes of love", there are also "eyes of faith". Incidentally, if we read this entire story in the Bible (here we unfortunately have but a short excerpt), we would note how important is the theme of sight; the very name Moriah (“go to the land of Moriah”) is a play on the verb “to see”, which is repeated in verse 8 (“God will provide” - literally, “God will see”)” and in verse 14 (“On the mountain the Lord will provide/see”): Moriah means both "The LORD sees" and "The LORD is seen"; it is a way of saying that faith is like a pair of glasses through which we see God and the world.
It is a reading through the eyes of faith that I now propose: First, this text was written at least a thousand years after everyone knew how the story ended - that Isaac did not die at the hands of Abraham, but lived to a ripe old age. Therefore, it is clear that the author is not trying to write a suspense narrative.
Secondly, when this text was written (around 700 BC, whereas Abraham lived around 1850 BC) everyone knew perfectly well that from time immemorial God abhorred human sacrifice; but they also knew that because Israel’s neighbors practiced human sacrifice it had been difficult for them not to engage in it as well. A different understanding of God was required if the people were to reject human sacrifice. And so Abraham’s descendants are reading this text as the story of Abraham’s conversion in how he sees God; as if God was asking Abraham, "When I ask you for a sacrifice what do you imagine: a God who wants the death of your child? Well, you are mistaken! Yet, I reminded you many times that I have not forgotten my promise to give you offspring precisely through this son.”
We know of this famous promise from the previous chapters of the book of Genesis: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. I make your name great ... all the families of the earth will find blessing in you ... I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth…. Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so… will your descendants be ... It is through Isaac that descendants will bear your name... "(all these promises are found in chapters 12-21 of Genesis).
GOD DID NOT FORGET THIS PROMISE
When testing Abraham, God reminds him of this promise that God has not forgotten: God calls out his name, "Abraham,” which is not his birth name (Abram), but the name he received when God made covenant with him; "Abraham" means "father of multitudes".
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love..." A pagan reading of this text would say that not only is God demanding a horrible thing, but that God also likes to rub salt in the wound. The other reading is that if God insists that Isaac is "your son… your only one, whom you love" it is God’s way of saying: “I have not forgotten my promise, I have not forgotten that it was on him, Isaac, that all our hopes rest..”. “Your only one” is a reminder that it is through him and him alone that the promise will be realized, from whom the multitude of descendants will be born - descendants that will be as numerous as the dust of the earth (Gen 13), as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen 15).
The name Isaac means "child of laughter": a reminder to Abraham that both he and Sarah had laughed in disbelief when God promised them this son (considering their advanced age) but the child was born to them because God had promised it.
You may have noticed the unusual phrase that I used above when I imagined that God said to Abraham, "I have not forgotten that it was on him, Isaac, that all our hopes rest.” This is the difference between the pagan reading and the lens of faith: the pagan suspects God of having no use for him; the believer has discovered that our hope can also be God's hope, that God and humanity can have the same interests since God has made covenant with us, thus embarking on a joint venture. As I often say, faith is to believe, in spite of all that can happen, that God has a benevolent plan for us!
This was the kind of faith that Abraham had: he believed that in a way that eluded him God would somehow fulfill God’s promise to give him descendants through Isaac and not by another; that is why Abraham is given as a model of faith to his descendants; and that is also why God could test his faith to this point.
Thanks to Abraham’s invincible faith a decisive step was taken in the history of Revelation – a turning point: Abraham discovered that when God says "sacrifice" God does not say "kill", as if the sight of blood gave God pleasure! When God asks him to offer up his son, Abraham discovers that it means "make him live, never forgetting that it was God who gave him to you." Israel will know from then on that God never desires the death of a human being, no matter what.
Abraham did not abandon his trust in God and therefore he is able to hear once again the promise that he never doubted: "I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing - all this because you obeyed my command." These are the same promises that we heard in chapters 12-21 of Genesis.
Today, this promise of God is far from being fulfilled: there are indeed innumerable descendants but we can question if they are a source of blessing for all humanity beginning with themselves. That is yet to come! Especially when we see the harsh battles between the descendants themselves!
Those who deserve to be called “children of Abraham” are those who believe that God’s promise will be fulfilled, no matter what happens, simply because God has promised it and God is faithful. Or rather, the true “children of Abraham” are those who today both believe in God’s promise and work with all their strength towards its fulfillment!
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Note
On the prohibition of human sacrifice: read Deuteronomy 18.10; Jeremiah 7.31; Jeremiah 19.5. It may well be that the story about the offering of Isaac (what Jews call "the Binding of Isaac") was created to reinforce in believers the ban on human sacrifice at a time when the temptation to imitate the practice in use in neighboring nations was again making inroads. Abraham is held up as an example: he, their model of faith, had understood that God has never desired such sacrifices.
Responsorial Psalm – 116.10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R/I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R/ I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R/ I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R/ I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
Second Reading – Romans 8.31b-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised—
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
Commentary
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
These lines are part of Paul’s moving contemplation on God’s great love for humanity: God so loved the world that God did not hesitate to give up his Son who so loved humanity that he delivered himself into its hands; now, his Spirit is in us and nothing can ever separate us from the infinite love of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Paul begins his contemplation with the words "What then are we to say…?” (v. 31a)
But then, in the second part of today’s passage Paul seems to have anticipated the question that many of us may be asking: "You speak only of God’s love, but where is God’s justice in all this?" So he addresses the question of God's justice: he uses juridical terms such as “bring a charge against… acquits… condemn.” Paul imagines humanity appearing in a court of law. Here, as always, Paul draws from the Old Testament, because the theme of God’s judgment runs throughout biblical history; and just like all the other words in the vocabulary of faith, the meaning of the word "judgment" changed over time as believers discovered the true face of God. For human beings justice is usually imagined as weight scales (the scales of justice); but God who is All-Other has a different concept of justice. God’s judgment is never one of condemnation or imprisonment, but always one of salvation and liberation.
One of the most poignant texts illustrating the divine concept of justice is found in the first Servant Song in the Book of Isaiah: "Here is my servant… I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice" (Is 42.1-3). Indeed it is with great gentleness that judgment is passed. And a little further on Isaiah gives the verdict: the Servant will “open the eyes that are blind… bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness"(Is 42.7). In other words, God’s judgment is a release from our personal prisons - inseparable however from the missionary mandate to go and tell the whole world about the depth and breadth of God’s love.
Therefore Paul concludes that, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Who could afford to be against us? Or take God’s place in judging us? "Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?" Then Paul adds that we can be sure that “God is for us" for “He…did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all." God did not "take away this cup" as Christ asked at Gethsemane; God did not miraculously lift Jesus out from under the hatred of men.
In the first eight chapters of this letter to the Romans Paul explains that before the coming of Christ all of humanity was in a hopeless situation, locked in a kind of slavery: the Gentiles gave themselves over to idols, false gods which inspired all sorts of aberrant behaviors, fanaticism, hatred, and unrest; and the Jews, although the recipients of Revelation, failed to recognize the Messiah and sacrificed him under a false interpretation of the Law.
GOD WANTS THE SALVATION OF ALL
Faced with this disastrous failure of humanity, God has taken the initiative to give us a Savior; God has accomplished the salvation that human beings were unable to bring about on their own. However, it is in the name of the Law given by God that the Son of God is executed as a public sinner; and God allows this human folly. The cross is as much a manifestation of the Father's love as it is a manifestation of the love of the Son: God allows us to discover the extent of his love for us. In contemplating Christ’s death we are brought face to face with the immensity of God's love.
In his writings Paul insists over and over that Christ died “for us all”; love is, after all, hypothetically free. "With (God) there is no partiality," says the letter to the Ephesians (repeating a phrase from Sirach) (Eph 6.9). The letter to Timothy insists that God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all" (1 Tim 2.4-6). And by now you know that the word ‘ransom’ means liberation; we are liberated from our dreadful misconception, from our difficulty to believe that God is love. Salvation is to have our eyes opened to this truth. In the letter to Timothy quoted above it is quite clear that God our Savior desires everyone to be saved, that is, to come to the knowledge of the truth, the truth that God is Love.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God has been disclosed… For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus " (Rom 3.21-24). And the letter to the Ephesians echoing the prophet Isaiah says: “He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Eph 2.17). Finally, Paul concludes this chapter by saying that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8.39).
The all-encompassing phrase of Lent is “convert, and believe in the Good News!” And the News is even better than we had dared to believe.
Gospel – Mark 9.2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
Commentary
Each year on the second Sunday of Lent we read one of the three Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration. I will limit my comments to one aspect of Mark’s account of this event, a somewhat surprising aspect: “he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Why this rule of secrecy given by Jesus to his disciples?
First of all, what did they see? On a mountain Jesus appears to them in glory between two of Israel’s greatest figures: Moses the liberator, the one who handed them the Law, and Elijah the prophet of Horeb. We who know the end of the story are aware of what the disciples did not yet know: that some time later, on another mountain, Jesus will be crucified between two thieves.
Jesus knows that the biggest challenge of faith facing the apostles will be to recognize in these two faces of the Messiah the image of the Father: "he who has seen me has seen the Father" Jesus says to Philip the day before his death (John 14.9). This I think is a key phrase for understanding the mystery of Christ, because these two images, of glory and of suffering, are the twin sides of the one love of God for humanity as incarnated in Jesus Christ; as Saint Paul says in his letter to the Romans, God's love is manifested (made visible) in Jesus Christ: "the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8.39). And on several occasions, Jesus himself made the connection between glory and suffering - in speaking of the Son of man, for example; but it is still too early for the disciples to understand and accept this mystery of the suffering Messiah. That is probably why Jesus asks them not to tell anyone what they have seen “except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”
“(Jesus) charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Mark says that the disciples did as they were told while wondering, “what rising from the dead meant.” The disciples no doubt believed in the resurrection of the dead, like the majority of the Jews of their time; but they believed that it applied only to the end of time, and so they may have wondered why they had to remain silent “until the resurrection of the dead” that is to say “until the end of time”!
Another enigma for them was the title of Son of Man that Jesus attributed to himself. When he mentioned the Son of Man, they would immediately have thought of the prophet Daniel who spoke of the coming Messiah as the ‘son of man’; but this was actually a collective title since the prophet also called the Messiah “the holy ones of the Most High” (Daniel 7.18, 22). At the time of Jesus this idea of a collective Messiah was present in certain circles, where another image, the remnant of Israel, was also current (that Israel and the world would be saved by a faithful core of believers.)
However, Jesus could not be considered a collective being! Again, it was not until the Resurrection and Pentecost that the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth understood that Jesus is the head of the “the holy ones of the Most High” and that all the baptized worldwide are invited to act as one with him to save humanity.
Therefore, there were good reasons to ask the disciples not to speak right away about what they had not yet understood. In the meantime, they are asked to listen - the only way to enter into God’s mysteries: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON. LISTEN TO HIM.”
The words “Listen to him” were for the apostles an echo of the profession of faith they recited every day as faithful Jews, the “Shema Israel/ Hear O Israel.” This prayer is always a call to trust in God, no matter what. This trust will be severely tested in the coming months: the Transfiguration takes place at a key moment in Jesus' ministry; it marks the end of his ministry in Galilee and the beginning of the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross. The same applies to the words “my beloved”; it was one of the names given by the prophet Isaiah to the one he called the Servant of God: this Messiah would save his people through suffering and persecution.
However, Jesus thinks that all this must still remain secret, precisely because the disciples are not yet ready to understand (and even less the crowds) the mystery of the Person of Christ: the dazzling light of the Transfiguration should not detract those who witnessed it: they are not to interpret it as some earthly mark of success and glory; on the contrary, it is the radiation of love - a far cry from the hope for political triumph and instant power to which the apostles still held on and that inhabited them to the end. By asking for their silence, Jesus opens them to eventually understanding that only the Resurrection will shed light on his mystery.
What is needed now is to come down from the mountain, to resist the temptation to settle in the comfort zone of some tents, but rather to face hostility, persecution and death. The vision of the Transfiguration suddenly fades and “they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them”; this sentence sounds like a reminder of the inevitable reality facing Jesus: his glory, real as it may be, does not relieve him from the demands of his mission. Perhaps he asks his disciples not to speak of the event because he himself does not want to be weakened in his resolve to face his coming trials.
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 1er mars, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
RE: 02.12.15~Readings for Sunday, February 15th 2015 + Commentaries
Commentary – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
February 15, 2015
First Reading – Leviticus 13.1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
“If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
“The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”
Commentary
LEVITICUS, A BOOK WORTH DISCOVERING
The Book of Leviticus does not make for easy reading: with its twenty-seven chapters of regulations, often very detailed, its singular focus on the priesthood, and its rules for worship and daily life aimed at remaining faithful to the covenant with God. We are clearly in the presence of a particular theological current, very clerical, in which the priests (the Levites, the so-called priestly class) are the privileged intermediaries between God and the people. The Book of Leviticus is very different from the Book of Deuteronomy from which we read for the fourth Sunday in ordinary time, which belongs to another theological school in which it is the prophets who are the voice of God.
But after the Exile, when Israel no longer had a king nor prophets, it was the priests who thankfully assumed the responsibility for the spiritual and even political survival of the people of the Covenant. Because for them, (and herein lies the profound beauty of this book if we are willing to go beyond first impressions and read between the lines) the Covenant offered by God to Israel is a great honor and a vital necessity: the Holy God (that is, the All-Other) offers a true communion of love to this insignificant people, and it is therefore extremely important for Israel to remain worthy of the encounter with the Holy God.
We rarely read from the Book of Leviticus, but it is proposed for this Sunday as an introduction to the Gospel story about Jesus’ healing of a leper. To understand the importance of this miracle we need to know the context in which Jesus acted, since the requirements of the Levitical law concerning lepers were still in force in his day.
These requirements seem harsh to us: when one has the misfortune to be ill it is additionally painful to be an outcast. The measures concerning leprosy were very stringent; when someone showed signs of an infectious skin disease he had to immediately present himself to the priest who conducted a formal examination and then decided whether to declare the person unclean. The declaration of impurity totally excluded the person from religious life, and therefore at the time, from all social life: to be impure meant that one was unfit for worship and barred from all contact with other members of the holy people who must do everything to preserve their purity. Thus excluded from the community of the living, the leper wore the signs of his own mourning (torn clothes, unkempt look): "The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants… The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean... He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”
Job was a good example of this (see the text that we read last Sunday): finding himself struck with leprosy, he accepted the consequences and settled on the public landfill (Job 2.8); he was simply observing the requirements of the Book of Leviticus.
If the patient thought he was cured, he appeared again before the priest who conducted a second very thorough examination before declaring the person healed and once again pure, able to return to normal life. Various purification rites - sprinkling rites, baths and sacrifices - accompanied this reintegration.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
Why was leprosy such a threat to social life? Probably because it was a highly contagious disease with no known treatment at the time and therefore it was wise to act prudently to protect the majority of the population. Here we have evidence of the hierarchy of priorities in Israel: the well being of the individual was secondary to the public good.
We should note that this is still sometimes the case today; we do not hesitate to quarantine infected persons in order to protect the public from possible bacterial contamination; and school children are sometimes asked to stay home if meningitis is suspected; in the case of avian flu or mad cow disease the systematic slaughter of animals is authorized to protect human beings. Although we recognize in the 21st century that a quarantined person experiences a real sense of exclusion we do not hesitate to enact such measures in the name of the greater public good.
Leprosy was also a threat to social life in Israel because it was thought that disease is always the consequence of sin: everyone knew that God is just, but with the arithmetic conception of distributive justice that prevailed at the time, the reasoning was that God’s justice meant that good people were rewarded in proportion to their merits and the wicked were punished according to a fair assessment of their sins. This concept, sometimes called the "logic of retribution" was without exception - to the point that illness was an automatic sign that a person had sinned: all the more reason to avoid this contagion if one wanted to remain pure and worthy of encountering the Holy God. This explains why the leper had to go to the priest (and not the doctor!) to report both the disease and the healing.
It seems that little had changed in Jesus' time since lepers still provoked the same revulsion and the same measures of exclusion. It took a long period of time for Revelation to teach us that the merciful God is attracted to the poor and destitute, and that no one is excluded - Jesus confirmed this in his words and actions.
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Addendum
Leprosy was long considered a hopelessly incurable disease, to the point that any recovery was seen as miraculous. The story of Naaman, the Syrian general in the Second Book of Kings is revealing on this point: when he discovers that he has leprosy, he goes to see his king in Damascus and asks him to intervene on his behalf with the king of Israel because he has heard that there is in Israel a healer/prophet (Elisha). What interests us in the story of Naaman is the reaction of the king of Israel, for his reaction shows to what extent leprosy was considered an incurable scourge. When the king of Israel receives the letter from the king of Damascus saying, “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy”, he panics: “When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone for me to cure him of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” (2 Kings 6-7). Translate: “there is no way to save Naaman from his leprosy and the king of Damascus will turn against me for failing him; this will end in disaster; this is undoubtedly a way for him to forge a pretext to
attack me.”
Responsorial Psalm – 32.1-2, 5, 11
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10.31-11.1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Commentary
THERE IS NOTHING ORDINARY ABOUT OUR DAILY LIFE
There are at least two lessons in this text: a theological one that should help us see our daily lives in a different light, and then a lesson on Christian conduct.
Theologically this text affirms that because God did not disdain to become one of us, no aspect of our daily lives is despicable. Since God became one of us, we can identify with God: to live for the glory of God means that each of our actions, even the most ordinary, has the potential to identify us with God. We can no longer say that human activity such as eating, drinking, or anything else is mundane! Nothing is contemptible or unworthy; each of our actions can be worthy of God. Since “the Word was made flesh”, as St. John says, we know that our whole life in the flesh can be a revelation of God. The mystery of the Incarnation is actually the wonder of the Incarnation, for our most ordinary gestures can now be lived with God.
However, according to Paul, these same gestures can also be obstacles for others: “Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God.” Paul is dealing once again with the problem facing new Christians with regards to the pagan custom of sacrificing to idols: meat sacrificed to idols was sold (at least in part) in the public market. Could a Christian eat this meat? (For more on this issue, see the commentary for last Sunday on 1 Corinthians 9.22: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B). However, the issue addresses a much larger question, that of the meaning of freedom. Chapters 6-11 of 1 Corinthians deal with Christian conduct, in which Paul repeats twice that: "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial" (6.12; 10.23). "Everything is lawful" is a way of saying that whoever believes in Jesus Christ does not live under a regime of obligations and prohibitions. For Paul this was a momentous discovery, since he had been raised in the highest respect and even love of Jewish law with all of its detailed, precise, meticulous commandments concerning circumcision, ceremonial washings, the Sabbath, and so on. All this had been abolished, for God demands none of this: no one can impose obligations on behalf of God, other than the law of love. As a faithful Jew, Paul believed that he was pleasing God by observing the six hundred and thirteen commandments listed by the doctors of the Law; when he became a Christian, he discovered that we are no longer "under the Law", as he says, but "under grace" (Rom 6.14).
EVERYTHING IS LAWFUL … BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS BENEFICIAL
This does not mean that freedom is a license to do as one pleases! "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial," says Paul. It is no good to do away with the Jewish law only to fall back into another set of obligations; in his letter to the Galatians, he insists: "For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5.1). Moreover, there is a commandment, one that should singularly guide all our actions: the commandment to love. Saint Augustine summarized Paul's doctrine in a maxim that should be our rule of thumb: "Love, and do what you will.” This means that we are free to take initiatives, free to choose the behavior that seems best for us in every circumstance of our lives, as long as we are always guided by one concern: concern for others. When Paul writes, "Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God," we could translate: "Avoid shocking others." In the verses preceding those for today, Paul says: "Everything is lawful, but not everything builds up" (10.23) meaning that not everything builds up the community: there are ways of acting and speaking that sow discord.
Later on in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul also talks about the use of spiritual gifts, and he gives one single criterion "Everything should be done for building up” (in the sense of the common good) (1 Cor 14.26); which is what he says here in different words: “not seeking my own benefit but that of the many.”
It is not out of pride or boastfulness that Paul adds: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”; his is the wise advice of one who has already faced many difficulties: Paul, a Jew from a Greek culture, who has crossed from Judaism to Christianity knows that evangelization requires respecting everyone's differences: "Do as I do, always trying to adapt to everyone, not seeking my own benefit but that of the general public so that many may be saved. Take me as your model since my model is Christ." And Christ welcomes all, even the excluded, like the leper (in today’s Gospel).
To welcome without contempt, to adapt without denying one’s Christian identity: two excellent ways for us to daily live as Christians; yet we need to learn to discern how use this freedom: for this the Holy Spirit was given to us.
Gospel – Mark 1.40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
Commentary
THE HEALING OF A LEPER
This is Jesus’ first missionary journey; until now he had been in Capernaum, which according to the evangelists was the city Jesus chose for the beginning of his public life; in Capernaum Jesus had performed many miracles, and had to tear himself away from those waiting to see him, saying, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.” And Mark adds: "So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee." It is therefore somewhere in Galilee, out of Capernaum, that a leper approaches Jesus.
There are actually two stories in this passage: the first, and most obvious, is the story of the miracle: the leper is healed, and both his skin and his social status are restored. But there is also another story, much larger and more critical: Jesus’ constant struggle to reveal the true face of God. For in taking the risk of touching the leper, Jesus made a bold, even scandalous move.
This is certainly where Mark wants to draw our attention because the words "clean/cleansing” appear four times in these few lines. Cleanliness or rather purity was a major concern of the time: one had to be pure in order to enter into relations with the Holy God, and therefore all members of the chosen people were very vigilant on this issue. The book of Leviticus (from which was taken our first reading for this Sunday) has many chapters on the rules of purity; and Mark himself, later in his Gospel says, "For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles [and beds]." (Mark 7.3-4).
This quest for purity logically led to the exclusion of all those who were considered unclean; and because at the time it was believed that the body mirrored the soul and that disease was the evidence of sin, all contact with the sick was carefully avoided for the sake of purity; we heard this in our first reading: "the one who bears the sore of leprosy…. shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” This means that when Jesus and the leper pass near each other, they should have avoided each other at all costs; it also means that in the time of Jesus someone could be excluded in the very name of God – a most terrifying thought!
Therefore the leper in this story should not have dared to approach Jesus and likewise Jesus should never have touched him; it took great audacity on the part of both to transgress the traditional exclusion, and it is from this double audacity that the miracle has been born.
The leper had probably heard of Jesus’ growing reputation; Mark says a little earlier that "his fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee." He addresses Jesus as if he were the Messiah: "kneeling down (he) begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean." Only before God does one fall to one’s knees, and secondly, at the time, everyone knew that when the Messiah came he would inaugurate the era of universal happiness: in the "new heavens and the new earth" promised by Isaiah, there would be no more weeping and no more crying (Is 65.19), and all who mourned would be comforted (Is 61.2). That's exactly what the leper asks of Jesus, the healing promised for messianic times; and Jesus meets his expectation (literally) “I do will it. Be made clean.”
Therefore, right from the outset, Jesus asserts himself as “the one they were awaiting”; later he will say to John the Baptist's disciples when they ask if he is the expected Messiah, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them" (Mt 11.4-5). The leper is truly poor: because of his illness as well as through his humble attitude, "If you wish, you can make me clean.” With such a leap of faith Jesus could act.
JESUS’ STRUGGLE AGIANST ALL FORMS OF EXCLUSION
But this healing is also the first of Jesus’ many struggles against all forms of exclusion: for the Good News that he proclaims and that the leper will hasten to spread is that no one can any longer be declared unclean and excluded in the name of God. The new world in which "lepers are cleansed" is really "good news" for the poor: not only are the sick and lepers cured, but they are "made pure" – they can be "friends of God."
This means that if we want to be like God, to be like the God who "attends to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die" (Ps 102.21), we are not to exclude anyone, but rather reach out to others. To be like the holy God is not to avoid contact with others, whoever they are, but to develop our capacity for love. This is exactly Jesus’ attitude towards the leper: “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him… And Paul (in this Sunday’s second reading) simply invites us to imitate Christ: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11.1).
Nevertheless, Jesus had to violate the letter of the law in order to fully live the commandment of love ("Love your neighbor as yourself"); his initiative shows an extraordinary freedom; but not everyone is ready to understand, and so Jesus asks the cleansed leper to keep silent: "Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest." From the onset of his public life, the struggle that would lead Jesus to his death has begun.
We can already see the outline of the Passion and Resurrection: Jesus, more devalued and excluded than a leper, stained with blood and spit, executed outside the Holy City, this Jesus will be the beloved of the Father, the image of God, the "Pure" par excellence.
******
Jesus was a “practicing believer” as we would say in today’s terms: we saw how he spent the Sabbath in the Capernaum synagogue. This does not prevent him from breaking the law that forbade him to approach or touch the leper.
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 15 février, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
February 15, 2015
First Reading – Leviticus 13.1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
“If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
“The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”
Commentary
LEVITICUS, A BOOK WORTH DISCOVERING
The Book of Leviticus does not make for easy reading: with its twenty-seven chapters of regulations, often very detailed, its singular focus on the priesthood, and its rules for worship and daily life aimed at remaining faithful to the covenant with God. We are clearly in the presence of a particular theological current, very clerical, in which the priests (the Levites, the so-called priestly class) are the privileged intermediaries between God and the people. The Book of Leviticus is very different from the Book of Deuteronomy from which we read for the fourth Sunday in ordinary time, which belongs to another theological school in which it is the prophets who are the voice of God.
But after the Exile, when Israel no longer had a king nor prophets, it was the priests who thankfully assumed the responsibility for the spiritual and even political survival of the people of the Covenant. Because for them, (and herein lies the profound beauty of this book if we are willing to go beyond first impressions and read between the lines) the Covenant offered by God to Israel is a great honor and a vital necessity: the Holy God (that is, the All-Other) offers a true communion of love to this insignificant people, and it is therefore extremely important for Israel to remain worthy of the encounter with the Holy God.
We rarely read from the Book of Leviticus, but it is proposed for this Sunday as an introduction to the Gospel story about Jesus’ healing of a leper. To understand the importance of this miracle we need to know the context in which Jesus acted, since the requirements of the Levitical law concerning lepers were still in force in his day.
These requirements seem harsh to us: when one has the misfortune to be ill it is additionally painful to be an outcast. The measures concerning leprosy were very stringent; when someone showed signs of an infectious skin disease he had to immediately present himself to the priest who conducted a formal examination and then decided whether to declare the person unclean. The declaration of impurity totally excluded the person from religious life, and therefore at the time, from all social life: to be impure meant that one was unfit for worship and barred from all contact with other members of the holy people who must do everything to preserve their purity. Thus excluded from the community of the living, the leper wore the signs of his own mourning (torn clothes, unkempt look): "The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants… The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean... He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”
Job was a good example of this (see the text that we read last Sunday): finding himself struck with leprosy, he accepted the consequences and settled on the public landfill (Job 2.8); he was simply observing the requirements of the Book of Leviticus.
If the patient thought he was cured, he appeared again before the priest who conducted a second very thorough examination before declaring the person healed and once again pure, able to return to normal life. Various purification rites - sprinkling rites, baths and sacrifices - accompanied this reintegration.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
Why was leprosy such a threat to social life? Probably because it was a highly contagious disease with no known treatment at the time and therefore it was wise to act prudently to protect the majority of the population. Here we have evidence of the hierarchy of priorities in Israel: the well being of the individual was secondary to the public good.
We should note that this is still sometimes the case today; we do not hesitate to quarantine infected persons in order to protect the public from possible bacterial contamination; and school children are sometimes asked to stay home if meningitis is suspected; in the case of avian flu or mad cow disease the systematic slaughter of animals is authorized to protect human beings. Although we recognize in the 21st century that a quarantined person experiences a real sense of exclusion we do not hesitate to enact such measures in the name of the greater public good.
Leprosy was also a threat to social life in Israel because it was thought that disease is always the consequence of sin: everyone knew that God is just, but with the arithmetic conception of distributive justice that prevailed at the time, the reasoning was that God’s justice meant that good people were rewarded in proportion to their merits and the wicked were punished according to a fair assessment of their sins. This concept, sometimes called the "logic of retribution" was without exception - to the point that illness was an automatic sign that a person had sinned: all the more reason to avoid this contagion if one wanted to remain pure and worthy of encountering the Holy God. This explains why the leper had to go to the priest (and not the doctor!) to report both the disease and the healing.
It seems that little had changed in Jesus' time since lepers still provoked the same revulsion and the same measures of exclusion. It took a long period of time for Revelation to teach us that the merciful God is attracted to the poor and destitute, and that no one is excluded - Jesus confirmed this in his words and actions.
****
Addendum
Leprosy was long considered a hopelessly incurable disease, to the point that any recovery was seen as miraculous. The story of Naaman, the Syrian general in the Second Book of Kings is revealing on this point: when he discovers that he has leprosy, he goes to see his king in Damascus and asks him to intervene on his behalf with the king of Israel because he has heard that there is in Israel a healer/prophet (Elisha). What interests us in the story of Naaman is the reaction of the king of Israel, for his reaction shows to what extent leprosy was considered an incurable scourge. When the king of Israel receives the letter from the king of Damascus saying, “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy”, he panics: “When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone for me to cure him of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” (2 Kings 6-7). Translate: “there is no way to save Naaman from his leprosy and the king of Damascus will turn against me for failing him; this will end in disaster; this is undoubtedly a way for him to forge a pretext to
attack me.”
Responsorial Psalm – 32.1-2, 5, 11
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R/ I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10.31-11.1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Commentary
THERE IS NOTHING ORDINARY ABOUT OUR DAILY LIFE
There are at least two lessons in this text: a theological one that should help us see our daily lives in a different light, and then a lesson on Christian conduct.
Theologically this text affirms that because God did not disdain to become one of us, no aspect of our daily lives is despicable. Since God became one of us, we can identify with God: to live for the glory of God means that each of our actions, even the most ordinary, has the potential to identify us with God. We can no longer say that human activity such as eating, drinking, or anything else is mundane! Nothing is contemptible or unworthy; each of our actions can be worthy of God. Since “the Word was made flesh”, as St. John says, we know that our whole life in the flesh can be a revelation of God. The mystery of the Incarnation is actually the wonder of the Incarnation, for our most ordinary gestures can now be lived with God.
However, according to Paul, these same gestures can also be obstacles for others: “Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God.” Paul is dealing once again with the problem facing new Christians with regards to the pagan custom of sacrificing to idols: meat sacrificed to idols was sold (at least in part) in the public market. Could a Christian eat this meat? (For more on this issue, see the commentary for last Sunday on 1 Corinthians 9.22: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B). However, the issue addresses a much larger question, that of the meaning of freedom. Chapters 6-11 of 1 Corinthians deal with Christian conduct, in which Paul repeats twice that: "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial" (6.12; 10.23). "Everything is lawful" is a way of saying that whoever believes in Jesus Christ does not live under a regime of obligations and prohibitions. For Paul this was a momentous discovery, since he had been raised in the highest respect and even love of Jewish law with all of its detailed, precise, meticulous commandments concerning circumcision, ceremonial washings, the Sabbath, and so on. All this had been abolished, for God demands none of this: no one can impose obligations on behalf of God, other than the law of love. As a faithful Jew, Paul believed that he was pleasing God by observing the six hundred and thirteen commandments listed by the doctors of the Law; when he became a Christian, he discovered that we are no longer "under the Law", as he says, but "under grace" (Rom 6.14).
EVERYTHING IS LAWFUL … BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS BENEFICIAL
This does not mean that freedom is a license to do as one pleases! "Everything is lawful… but not everything is beneficial," says Paul. It is no good to do away with the Jewish law only to fall back into another set of obligations; in his letter to the Galatians, he insists: "For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5.1). Moreover, there is a commandment, one that should singularly guide all our actions: the commandment to love. Saint Augustine summarized Paul's doctrine in a maxim that should be our rule of thumb: "Love, and do what you will.” This means that we are free to take initiatives, free to choose the behavior that seems best for us in every circumstance of our lives, as long as we are always guided by one concern: concern for others. When Paul writes, "Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God," we could translate: "Avoid shocking others." In the verses preceding those for today, Paul says: "Everything is lawful, but not everything builds up" (10.23) meaning that not everything builds up the community: there are ways of acting and speaking that sow discord.
Later on in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul also talks about the use of spiritual gifts, and he gives one single criterion "Everything should be done for building up” (in the sense of the common good) (1 Cor 14.26); which is what he says here in different words: “not seeking my own benefit but that of the many.”
It is not out of pride or boastfulness that Paul adds: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”; his is the wise advice of one who has already faced many difficulties: Paul, a Jew from a Greek culture, who has crossed from Judaism to Christianity knows that evangelization requires respecting everyone's differences: "Do as I do, always trying to adapt to everyone, not seeking my own benefit but that of the general public so that many may be saved. Take me as your model since my model is Christ." And Christ welcomes all, even the excluded, like the leper (in today’s Gospel).
To welcome without contempt, to adapt without denying one’s Christian identity: two excellent ways for us to daily live as Christians; yet we need to learn to discern how use this freedom: for this the Holy Spirit was given to us.
Gospel – Mark 1.40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
Commentary
THE HEALING OF A LEPER
This is Jesus’ first missionary journey; until now he had been in Capernaum, which according to the evangelists was the city Jesus chose for the beginning of his public life; in Capernaum Jesus had performed many miracles, and had to tear himself away from those waiting to see him, saying, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.” And Mark adds: "So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee." It is therefore somewhere in Galilee, out of Capernaum, that a leper approaches Jesus.
There are actually two stories in this passage: the first, and most obvious, is the story of the miracle: the leper is healed, and both his skin and his social status are restored. But there is also another story, much larger and more critical: Jesus’ constant struggle to reveal the true face of God. For in taking the risk of touching the leper, Jesus made a bold, even scandalous move.
This is certainly where Mark wants to draw our attention because the words "clean/cleansing” appear four times in these few lines. Cleanliness or rather purity was a major concern of the time: one had to be pure in order to enter into relations with the Holy God, and therefore all members of the chosen people were very vigilant on this issue. The book of Leviticus (from which was taken our first reading for this Sunday) has many chapters on the rules of purity; and Mark himself, later in his Gospel says, "For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles [and beds]." (Mark 7.3-4).
This quest for purity logically led to the exclusion of all those who were considered unclean; and because at the time it was believed that the body mirrored the soul and that disease was the evidence of sin, all contact with the sick was carefully avoided for the sake of purity; we heard this in our first reading: "the one who bears the sore of leprosy…. shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” This means that when Jesus and the leper pass near each other, they should have avoided each other at all costs; it also means that in the time of Jesus someone could be excluded in the very name of God – a most terrifying thought!
Therefore the leper in this story should not have dared to approach Jesus and likewise Jesus should never have touched him; it took great audacity on the part of both to transgress the traditional exclusion, and it is from this double audacity that the miracle has been born.
The leper had probably heard of Jesus’ growing reputation; Mark says a little earlier that "his fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee." He addresses Jesus as if he were the Messiah: "kneeling down (he) begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean." Only before God does one fall to one’s knees, and secondly, at the time, everyone knew that when the Messiah came he would inaugurate the era of universal happiness: in the "new heavens and the new earth" promised by Isaiah, there would be no more weeping and no more crying (Is 65.19), and all who mourned would be comforted (Is 61.2). That's exactly what the leper asks of Jesus, the healing promised for messianic times; and Jesus meets his expectation (literally) “I do will it. Be made clean.”
Therefore, right from the outset, Jesus asserts himself as “the one they were awaiting”; later he will say to John the Baptist's disciples when they ask if he is the expected Messiah, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them" (Mt 11.4-5). The leper is truly poor: because of his illness as well as through his humble attitude, "If you wish, you can make me clean.” With such a leap of faith Jesus could act.
JESUS’ STRUGGLE AGIANST ALL FORMS OF EXCLUSION
But this healing is also the first of Jesus’ many struggles against all forms of exclusion: for the Good News that he proclaims and that the leper will hasten to spread is that no one can any longer be declared unclean and excluded in the name of God. The new world in which "lepers are cleansed" is really "good news" for the poor: not only are the sick and lepers cured, but they are "made pure" – they can be "friends of God."
This means that if we want to be like God, to be like the God who "attends to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die" (Ps 102.21), we are not to exclude anyone, but rather reach out to others. To be like the holy God is not to avoid contact with others, whoever they are, but to develop our capacity for love. This is exactly Jesus’ attitude towards the leper: “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him… And Paul (in this Sunday’s second reading) simply invites us to imitate Christ: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11.1).
Nevertheless, Jesus had to violate the letter of the law in order to fully live the commandment of love ("Love your neighbor as yourself"); his initiative shows an extraordinary freedom; but not everyone is ready to understand, and so Jesus asks the cleansed leper to keep silent: "Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest." From the onset of his public life, the struggle that would lead Jesus to his death has begun.
We can already see the outline of the Passion and Resurrection: Jesus, more devalued and excluded than a leper, stained with blood and spit, executed outside the Holy City, this Jesus will be the beloved of the Father, the image of God, the "Pure" par excellence.
******
Jesus was a “practicing believer” as we would say in today’s terms: we saw how he spent the Sabbath in the Capernaum synagogue. This does not prevent him from breaking the law that forbade him to approach or touch the leper.
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 15 février, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
Thursday, February 5, 2015
RE: 02.05.15 - Commentaries
Commentary – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
February 8, 2015
First Reading – Job 7.1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, “When shall I arise?”
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Commentary
JOB’S MISFORTUNES
The Book of Job has forty-two chapters and today’s verses are but a very short excerpt. Nevertheless, it is clear that Job is facing the most difficult human question, that of suffering. And many of us today can identify with Job’s complaints; because one of the great qualities of this book is its candid look at a timeless question.
Here is Job’s story: "In the land of Uz there was a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared God and avoided evil." He was happy, he was rich ... everything was going well for him, as we would say today. He had a wife and many children and his only concern was to see them stay on right track. In short, Job was irreproachable.
And then, suddenly, all of the world’s ills descend on him; in no time he loses all his wealth and cattle, and, much worse, all his children. He still has his health, but not for long: a second wave of misfortune befalls him; he develops a skin disease, a type of leprosy; the sight of him is repulsive and he is forced to leave the city and his beautiful home; in all of this, he is terribly alone: even his wife does not understand him.
Throughout the book, Job cries out his suffering - physical, psychological, moral; he cries out his anxiety over a premature death while he endures a horrendous life; he cries out his friends’ lack of support; but worst still, is God’s silence. Job spells out all this suffering in admirable terms, and constantly questions the injustice being done to him; because at the time that the Book of Job was written, everyone in Israel thought that God's justice scrupulously rewarded the good and punished the wicked – what is called the "logic of retribution." However Job had always led a righteous life and did not deserve to be punished.
WHERE IS GOD'S JUSTICE?
His friends do not see it that way: they think like everyone else and therefore keep reiterating the same arguments: first, since suffering is always a punishment, you Job are suffering because you have sinned; therefore examine your conscience. Let's face it: today, whenever we say, "What have I done to God to deserve this?” Or, “they deserved it,” we think like them. To his friends’ arguments, Job replies: “No, I assure you, I have not sinned”; but they insist that not only has he sinned (the proof is that he is suffering) but that he even has the audacity to deny it! Therefore he is doubly at fault.
Their second argument is that suffering is a school of virtue, a kind of tough love approach. For example, one of his friends dares to say, "Happy the one whom God reproves! The Almighty’s discipline, do not reject. For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands give healing" (Job 5.17-18). Throughout the book, Job refuses this facile reasoning; he would like to silence all this useless verbiage that only plunges him deeper in his solitude. Indeed, those of us who visit the sick and suffering can learn from what he says: "Oh, that you would be altogether silent; that for you would be wisdom! "(Job 13.5) and, " At least listen to my words and let that be the consolation you offer"(Job 21.2); in other words: “It would be better for you to keep quiet and listen to me; it’s the only way to console me.”
Job does not have an answer to his suffering other than to cry out and rebel ... without ever ceasing to claim that, "God can only be just." He himself evolves in his thinking: at the beginning of the book, he constantly repeats that he has not sinned, therefore what is happening to him is unfair ... without realizing that in saying this, he is in the same logic as his friends: "If we suffer, it is because we have sinned." Then gradually, the voice of experience takes over: Job has observed that thieves often live happy, unpunished lives, and die without suffering, while honest, innocent people can have agonizing and terrible lives. No, there is no justice, as they say; and his friends are wrong to claim that the good are always rewarded and the wicked always punished. Therefore Job understands that his interpretation of God's justice misses the mark. In the end, he runs out of arguments and in an act of humility, he acknowledges that only God understands the mysteries of life.
IN SUFFERING, REMAIN ALWAYS IN THE PALM OF GOD’S HAND
It is at this point that Job is ready for his great discovery, where God was waiting for him all along. It is now God who speaks; God does not reproach Job but rather his friends, telling them that their explanations are worthless, adding that only Job “has spoken of me what is right" (Job 42.7) - which means that Job was right to cry out, to rebel. Then God invites him to contemplate creation and to humbly acknowledge his ignorance; with the loving but firm guidance of a father, God helps Job understand that "God’s thoughts are not our thoughts" and that if God’s justice eludes us, it is not for us to challenge it. Job, a blameless and upright man, as we are told from the beginning, understands the lesson, admitting that he had “spoken but did not understand; things too marvelous for me, which I did not know ... I am of little account; what can I answer you? " (Job 42.3; 40.4).
Ultimately, the Book of Job does not give an explanation to the problem of suffering; if we had expected one, we would be disappointed; but it does show us the way: in suffering, do not hold back your cries all the while remaining confident in God and placing yourself in God’s hand: for God is with us each day until the end of the world.
As Paul Claudel says, "Jesus did not come to explain suffering but to inhabit it through his presence."
Responsorial Psalm – 147.1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R/Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9.16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Commentary
YOU RECEIVED FREELY; GIVE FREELY
From a number of Paul’s letters it seems that he makes a point of supporting himself through manual labor so as not to be a financial burden on the Christian community; and it seems that in the Church of Corinth, some of his opponents used this as an argument against him: according to them, if Paul does not use his right to be remunerated it must be because he wants to be free to do as he pleases; and therefore, is he really the apostle he claims to be?
In this passage Paul presents the underlying reasons for his decision to support himself. If he is unconcerned about being paid it is because he is not in it for himself: for him, announcing the Good News is not some job or profession that provides monetary or other benefits, but rather the fulfillment of the mission entrusted to him. He is “on assignment” so to speak, and that's what gives him the freedom to ask nothing from the community: "I preach the gospel… for an obligation has been imposed on me.” Paul, as we know, did not choose to announce the gospel; you might say that it was not part of the program: He was a devout Jew, educated, a fervent Pharisee, so fervent that he saw fit to persecute the new Christian sect. But then his sudden conversion changed everything; from now on, he places his passionate temperament at the service of the gospel. For him, proclaiming the Good News is something that is inseparable from the vocation he received - as if he could not be a Christian without being an apostle (one who is sent to proclaim the Good News). He is well aware that if God has called him it is for the benefit of others (of those he calls "the Gentiles", as he says in his letter to the Galatians: "[God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles… " (Gal 1.15).
This is so reminiscent of the vocation of some of the prophets: Amos, for example who says, "I am not a prophet, nor do I belong to a company of prophets. I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamores; but the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel"(Am 7.14). Or Jeremiah: “The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you" (Jer 1.4-5). A prophet, by definition, is always someone called FOR the good of others. In Mark's Gospel for today’s liturgy, Jesus makes clear that he has come to preach the Good News for the good of others.
Paul expresses this keen sense of his responsibility in strong words that may surprise us: "Woe to me if I do not preach it (the gospel)!" This does not mean that he fears any punishment or some external threat should he fail to fulfill his mission; what he is saying is something like this: "If I did not preach the gospel, I would be the most miserable of men." For Paul, his new passion for the gospel has become second nature; he fervently wants to share the discovery he has made. His joy and his reward is this: to know that he has accomplished the mission entrusted to him. Paul is not some itinerant preacher paid for his oratorical talents by giving conferences here and there; he is on duty: "for an obligation has been imposed on me … I have been entrusted with a stewardship.” This was the kind of vocabulary used in speaking of slaves; we could summarize verses 17-18 in this way: “if I had personally chosen this profession I would expect to be paid; but in reality, I have become God’s slave, and a slave is not paid, as everyone knows! Yet my reward is great, because it is a great honor and a great pleasure to announce the gospel: that is my salary." This apparent paradox is the wonderful daily experience of all the servants of the gospel, because to give freely is the only course of action that is consistent with any discourse on God’s free gift of love. Of course, one must live and make a living; but as Paul emphasizes, proclaiming the gospel does not qualify as a profession - it is a mission, a vocation. In wholeheartedly accomplishing this task, the apostle receives the joy of giving: in this he/she is like the One being proclaimed.
THE REQUIREMENTS OF FRATERNAL LIFE
The proclamation of the Good News is both word and action says Paul: "To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak"; what kind of weakness is he talking about? This sentence reflects the context in which Paul writes: the members of the Corinthian community have not all followed the same journey of faith, as we say. Some, like Paul, are former Jews who have become Christians; but others are non-Jews who formerly had their own religion, gods and rituals ... Their baptism and entry into the Christian community has sometimes imposed radical changes on their customs. For example, in their old religion, they offered sacrifices to their idols and then ate the meat of the sacrificed animals in the context of a sacred meal. When they professed the Christian faith, they obviously abandoned these practices. But this did not mean that relatives or pagan friends stopped inviting them to such meals. For example, archeologists have found invitations to a reception in a temple in Corinth, which read: "Anthony, son of Ptolemy, invites you to dine with him at the table of the Lord Serapis (one of the many deities of Corinth), in the premises of ... " followed by the date and time. Christians who are sure in their faith are not troubled in conscience when accepting such invitations: since idols do not exist, their friends and relatives can offer all the sacrifices in the world but these sacrifices mean nothing and the meat eaten is not a blasphemy against God. Mature Christians, strong in faith are quite free to partake in such meals. They may decide it best not to hurt family members or friends by refusing such an invitation.
But there are Christians whose faith is more fragile, whom Paul calls ‘the weak’: they also know that idols mean nothing, but their conscience is still troubled by these kinds of meals*; and so they should not be shocked, nor should they be given the opportunity to be tempted to fall back into their old practices. Those whose faith is strong must always assure that the faith of the weak is respected. This is the ABC of true communal life.
----------------
Note
On the one hand, they may be shocked to see their fellow Christians participating in these banquets. On the other hand, by personally attending these meals they may feel terribly guilty. Paul therefore advises caution to those who are beyond such qualms: "But make sure that this liberty of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak "(1 Cor 8.9). He concludes, "if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin" (1 Cor 8.13). In today’s passage he says the same thing, using different words: "To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.”
Addendum
In chapters 14 and 15 of the letter to the Romans, Paul addresses the same topic: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit… Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another… Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to become a stumbling block by eating… We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves" (Rom 14.17-20; 15.1).
Gospel – Mark 1.29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Commentary
GOD’S REIGN HAS BEGUN
This passage almost reads like a news report: Mark carefully relates the places, times and events; but the evangelist’s objectives are never journalistic, so we must believe that these details have a theological sense; it is for us to read between the lines.
The events take place in Galilee, in Capernaum - on the Sabbath, then in the evening after sunset and then on the following day. As you know, the Jews do not count the day from midnight to midnight, but from sunset to sunset; the Sabbath begins Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night with the appearance of the first stars; we also know that the Sabbath is a day reserved for prayer and the study of the Torah in the synagogue and at home; this is why the people of Capernaum bring their sick to Jesus only in the evening, after the Sabbath has ended. Mark says: "When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons." In stating that it is after sunset, Mark may also want to draw our attention to the fact that it is now Sunday, the first day of the week. For the early Christians, Sunday symbolized the beginning of the new creation.
On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to the synagogue and returns home immediately after; if Mark points this out, it is probably to remind his readers that Jesus is a Jew, faithful to the Law. That morning in the synagogue he had delivered a "man with an unclean spirit", in Mark’s words (v. 23). The news that Jesus commands the unclean spirits spread like wildfire and in the evening after the Sabbath, the people “brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.” Mark is implicitly saying: Here is the Messiah, the one who announces and brings about the Reign of God.
Curiously, the demons know who Jesus is, and Jesus forbids them to reveal his identity: "he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.” They know what was revealed at Jesus’ baptism when a voice from the heavens said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased;” and that morning in the synagogue of Capernaum the unclean spirit had proclaimed: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
Why is Jesus imposing this silence? After all he did not come to hide. It is probably because the people of Capernaum are not yet ready for this revelation: they still have a way to go before discovering the true face of Christ; for it is not enough to say, as the demons did, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” in order to know Christ. The sick in Capernaum are attracted to Jesus, but are they open to faith? This is the ambiguity of miracles: the risk of being healed without encountering God. So when Simon and the others wanted Jesus to stay and continue to heal the sick, saying "Everyone is looking for you," Jesus brings them back to basics - the preaching of the Reign of God: "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” If we reread the beginning of the Mark’s gospel, we see that for Jesus, to proclaim the Good News consists in saying: “This is the time of fulfillment; the kingdom of God is at hand." Miracles are a sign that the kingdom of God is already here; but there is a risk that only the miraculous will be seen.
THE URGENCY OF THE GOOD NEWS
"Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed." Jesus goes to the desert to meet God; and as soon as he is back with his disciples, he tells them, "Let us go…" Is it prayer that drives him to go elsewhere? Indeed it seems that this time of silent retreat strengthens his missionary zeal. As Monsignor Coffy says, "Jesus would not have gone as far in his work of evangelization had he not retreated as far in prayer." Basically, there is no dichotomy between prayer and action – they go hand in hand. “An evangelist who no longer prays will soon no longer evangelize” (words spoken by a bishop at the 1981 Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes).
"For this purpose have I come." These words bring us back to Paul's the letter to the Corinthians and the passage we just read for this Sunday: Jesus and Paul share the same passion for the proclamation of the Good News; they both have a sense of urgency.
One last note: Jesus' healings ought to shed some light on our discourse about suffering; if Jesus heals the sick it is because disease is an evil; if he heals at the same time that he announces the kingdom it is because evil thwarts God's benevolent plan and therefore we need to get rid of. In the first reading we heard Job crying out against his suffering, and at the end of the book, God validates Job’s rebellion. Suffering in itself is always an evil - this needs to be said; and we would be foolish to say to a sick person, "it is good that you are ill" ... Even if some, with the grace of God, find in their suffering a path for growth in holiness, the fact remains that suffering is an evil. Therefore all our efforts to alleviate human suffering are in line with God's plan. For God saves human beings, not disembodied souls; the Good News does not only speak to our intelligence or consciousness; the Good News simultaneously and inseparably strikes against everything that causes suffering.
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 8 février, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
February 8, 2015
First Reading – Job 7.1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, “When shall I arise?”
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Commentary
JOB’S MISFORTUNES
The Book of Job has forty-two chapters and today’s verses are but a very short excerpt. Nevertheless, it is clear that Job is facing the most difficult human question, that of suffering. And many of us today can identify with Job’s complaints; because one of the great qualities of this book is its candid look at a timeless question.
Here is Job’s story: "In the land of Uz there was a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared God and avoided evil." He was happy, he was rich ... everything was going well for him, as we would say today. He had a wife and many children and his only concern was to see them stay on right track. In short, Job was irreproachable.
And then, suddenly, all of the world’s ills descend on him; in no time he loses all his wealth and cattle, and, much worse, all his children. He still has his health, but not for long: a second wave of misfortune befalls him; he develops a skin disease, a type of leprosy; the sight of him is repulsive and he is forced to leave the city and his beautiful home; in all of this, he is terribly alone: even his wife does not understand him.
Throughout the book, Job cries out his suffering - physical, psychological, moral; he cries out his anxiety over a premature death while he endures a horrendous life; he cries out his friends’ lack of support; but worst still, is God’s silence. Job spells out all this suffering in admirable terms, and constantly questions the injustice being done to him; because at the time that the Book of Job was written, everyone in Israel thought that God's justice scrupulously rewarded the good and punished the wicked – what is called the "logic of retribution." However Job had always led a righteous life and did not deserve to be punished.
WHERE IS GOD'S JUSTICE?
His friends do not see it that way: they think like everyone else and therefore keep reiterating the same arguments: first, since suffering is always a punishment, you Job are suffering because you have sinned; therefore examine your conscience. Let's face it: today, whenever we say, "What have I done to God to deserve this?” Or, “they deserved it,” we think like them. To his friends’ arguments, Job replies: “No, I assure you, I have not sinned”; but they insist that not only has he sinned (the proof is that he is suffering) but that he even has the audacity to deny it! Therefore he is doubly at fault.
Their second argument is that suffering is a school of virtue, a kind of tough love approach. For example, one of his friends dares to say, "Happy the one whom God reproves! The Almighty’s discipline, do not reject. For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands give healing" (Job 5.17-18). Throughout the book, Job refuses this facile reasoning; he would like to silence all this useless verbiage that only plunges him deeper in his solitude. Indeed, those of us who visit the sick and suffering can learn from what he says: "Oh, that you would be altogether silent; that for you would be wisdom! "(Job 13.5) and, " At least listen to my words and let that be the consolation you offer"(Job 21.2); in other words: “It would be better for you to keep quiet and listen to me; it’s the only way to console me.”
Job does not have an answer to his suffering other than to cry out and rebel ... without ever ceasing to claim that, "God can only be just." He himself evolves in his thinking: at the beginning of the book, he constantly repeats that he has not sinned, therefore what is happening to him is unfair ... without realizing that in saying this, he is in the same logic as his friends: "If we suffer, it is because we have sinned." Then gradually, the voice of experience takes over: Job has observed that thieves often live happy, unpunished lives, and die without suffering, while honest, innocent people can have agonizing and terrible lives. No, there is no justice, as they say; and his friends are wrong to claim that the good are always rewarded and the wicked always punished. Therefore Job understands that his interpretation of God's justice misses the mark. In the end, he runs out of arguments and in an act of humility, he acknowledges that only God understands the mysteries of life.
IN SUFFERING, REMAIN ALWAYS IN THE PALM OF GOD’S HAND
It is at this point that Job is ready for his great discovery, where God was waiting for him all along. It is now God who speaks; God does not reproach Job but rather his friends, telling them that their explanations are worthless, adding that only Job “has spoken of me what is right" (Job 42.7) - which means that Job was right to cry out, to rebel. Then God invites him to contemplate creation and to humbly acknowledge his ignorance; with the loving but firm guidance of a father, God helps Job understand that "God’s thoughts are not our thoughts" and that if God’s justice eludes us, it is not for us to challenge it. Job, a blameless and upright man, as we are told from the beginning, understands the lesson, admitting that he had “spoken but did not understand; things too marvelous for me, which I did not know ... I am of little account; what can I answer you? " (Job 42.3; 40.4).
Ultimately, the Book of Job does not give an explanation to the problem of suffering; if we had expected one, we would be disappointed; but it does show us the way: in suffering, do not hold back your cries all the while remaining confident in God and placing yourself in God’s hand: for God is with us each day until the end of the world.
As Paul Claudel says, "Jesus did not come to explain suffering but to inhabit it through his presence."
Responsorial Psalm – 147.1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R/Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R/ Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9.16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Commentary
YOU RECEIVED FREELY; GIVE FREELY
From a number of Paul’s letters it seems that he makes a point of supporting himself through manual labor so as not to be a financial burden on the Christian community; and it seems that in the Church of Corinth, some of his opponents used this as an argument against him: according to them, if Paul does not use his right to be remunerated it must be because he wants to be free to do as he pleases; and therefore, is he really the apostle he claims to be?
In this passage Paul presents the underlying reasons for his decision to support himself. If he is unconcerned about being paid it is because he is not in it for himself: for him, announcing the Good News is not some job or profession that provides monetary or other benefits, but rather the fulfillment of the mission entrusted to him. He is “on assignment” so to speak, and that's what gives him the freedom to ask nothing from the community: "I preach the gospel… for an obligation has been imposed on me.” Paul, as we know, did not choose to announce the gospel; you might say that it was not part of the program: He was a devout Jew, educated, a fervent Pharisee, so fervent that he saw fit to persecute the new Christian sect. But then his sudden conversion changed everything; from now on, he places his passionate temperament at the service of the gospel. For him, proclaiming the Good News is something that is inseparable from the vocation he received - as if he could not be a Christian without being an apostle (one who is sent to proclaim the Good News). He is well aware that if God has called him it is for the benefit of others (of those he calls "the Gentiles", as he says in his letter to the Galatians: "[God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles… " (Gal 1.15).
This is so reminiscent of the vocation of some of the prophets: Amos, for example who says, "I am not a prophet, nor do I belong to a company of prophets. I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamores; but the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel"(Am 7.14). Or Jeremiah: “The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you" (Jer 1.4-5). A prophet, by definition, is always someone called FOR the good of others. In Mark's Gospel for today’s liturgy, Jesus makes clear that he has come to preach the Good News for the good of others.
Paul expresses this keen sense of his responsibility in strong words that may surprise us: "Woe to me if I do not preach it (the gospel)!" This does not mean that he fears any punishment or some external threat should he fail to fulfill his mission; what he is saying is something like this: "If I did not preach the gospel, I would be the most miserable of men." For Paul, his new passion for the gospel has become second nature; he fervently wants to share the discovery he has made. His joy and his reward is this: to know that he has accomplished the mission entrusted to him. Paul is not some itinerant preacher paid for his oratorical talents by giving conferences here and there; he is on duty: "for an obligation has been imposed on me … I have been entrusted with a stewardship.” This was the kind of vocabulary used in speaking of slaves; we could summarize verses 17-18 in this way: “if I had personally chosen this profession I would expect to be paid; but in reality, I have become God’s slave, and a slave is not paid, as everyone knows! Yet my reward is great, because it is a great honor and a great pleasure to announce the gospel: that is my salary." This apparent paradox is the wonderful daily experience of all the servants of the gospel, because to give freely is the only course of action that is consistent with any discourse on God’s free gift of love. Of course, one must live and make a living; but as Paul emphasizes, proclaiming the gospel does not qualify as a profession - it is a mission, a vocation. In wholeheartedly accomplishing this task, the apostle receives the joy of giving: in this he/she is like the One being proclaimed.
THE REQUIREMENTS OF FRATERNAL LIFE
The proclamation of the Good News is both word and action says Paul: "To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak"; what kind of weakness is he talking about? This sentence reflects the context in which Paul writes: the members of the Corinthian community have not all followed the same journey of faith, as we say. Some, like Paul, are former Jews who have become Christians; but others are non-Jews who formerly had their own religion, gods and rituals ... Their baptism and entry into the Christian community has sometimes imposed radical changes on their customs. For example, in their old religion, they offered sacrifices to their idols and then ate the meat of the sacrificed animals in the context of a sacred meal. When they professed the Christian faith, they obviously abandoned these practices. But this did not mean that relatives or pagan friends stopped inviting them to such meals. For example, archeologists have found invitations to a reception in a temple in Corinth, which read: "Anthony, son of Ptolemy, invites you to dine with him at the table of the Lord Serapis (one of the many deities of Corinth), in the premises of ... " followed by the date and time. Christians who are sure in their faith are not troubled in conscience when accepting such invitations: since idols do not exist, their friends and relatives can offer all the sacrifices in the world but these sacrifices mean nothing and the meat eaten is not a blasphemy against God. Mature Christians, strong in faith are quite free to partake in such meals. They may decide it best not to hurt family members or friends by refusing such an invitation.
But there are Christians whose faith is more fragile, whom Paul calls ‘the weak’: they also know that idols mean nothing, but their conscience is still troubled by these kinds of meals*; and so they should not be shocked, nor should they be given the opportunity to be tempted to fall back into their old practices. Those whose faith is strong must always assure that the faith of the weak is respected. This is the ABC of true communal life.
----------------
Note
On the one hand, they may be shocked to see their fellow Christians participating in these banquets. On the other hand, by personally attending these meals they may feel terribly guilty. Paul therefore advises caution to those who are beyond such qualms: "But make sure that this liberty of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak "(1 Cor 8.9). He concludes, "if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin" (1 Cor 8.13). In today’s passage he says the same thing, using different words: "To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.”
Addendum
In chapters 14 and 15 of the letter to the Romans, Paul addresses the same topic: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit… Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another… Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to become a stumbling block by eating… We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves" (Rom 14.17-20; 15.1).
Gospel – Mark 1.29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Commentary
GOD’S REIGN HAS BEGUN
This passage almost reads like a news report: Mark carefully relates the places, times and events; but the evangelist’s objectives are never journalistic, so we must believe that these details have a theological sense; it is for us to read between the lines.
The events take place in Galilee, in Capernaum - on the Sabbath, then in the evening after sunset and then on the following day. As you know, the Jews do not count the day from midnight to midnight, but from sunset to sunset; the Sabbath begins Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night with the appearance of the first stars; we also know that the Sabbath is a day reserved for prayer and the study of the Torah in the synagogue and at home; this is why the people of Capernaum bring their sick to Jesus only in the evening, after the Sabbath has ended. Mark says: "When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons." In stating that it is after sunset, Mark may also want to draw our attention to the fact that it is now Sunday, the first day of the week. For the early Christians, Sunday symbolized the beginning of the new creation.
On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to the synagogue and returns home immediately after; if Mark points this out, it is probably to remind his readers that Jesus is a Jew, faithful to the Law. That morning in the synagogue he had delivered a "man with an unclean spirit", in Mark’s words (v. 23). The news that Jesus commands the unclean spirits spread like wildfire and in the evening after the Sabbath, the people “brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.” Mark is implicitly saying: Here is the Messiah, the one who announces and brings about the Reign of God.
Curiously, the demons know who Jesus is, and Jesus forbids them to reveal his identity: "he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.” They know what was revealed at Jesus’ baptism when a voice from the heavens said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased;” and that morning in the synagogue of Capernaum the unclean spirit had proclaimed: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
Why is Jesus imposing this silence? After all he did not come to hide. It is probably because the people of Capernaum are not yet ready for this revelation: they still have a way to go before discovering the true face of Christ; for it is not enough to say, as the demons did, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” in order to know Christ. The sick in Capernaum are attracted to Jesus, but are they open to faith? This is the ambiguity of miracles: the risk of being healed without encountering God. So when Simon and the others wanted Jesus to stay and continue to heal the sick, saying "Everyone is looking for you," Jesus brings them back to basics - the preaching of the Reign of God: "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” If we reread the beginning of the Mark’s gospel, we see that for Jesus, to proclaim the Good News consists in saying: “This is the time of fulfillment; the kingdom of God is at hand." Miracles are a sign that the kingdom of God is already here; but there is a risk that only the miraculous will be seen.
THE URGENCY OF THE GOOD NEWS
"Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed." Jesus goes to the desert to meet God; and as soon as he is back with his disciples, he tells them, "Let us go…" Is it prayer that drives him to go elsewhere? Indeed it seems that this time of silent retreat strengthens his missionary zeal. As Monsignor Coffy says, "Jesus would not have gone as far in his work of evangelization had he not retreated as far in prayer." Basically, there is no dichotomy between prayer and action – they go hand in hand. “An evangelist who no longer prays will soon no longer evangelize” (words spoken by a bishop at the 1981 Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes).
"For this purpose have I come." These words bring us back to Paul's the letter to the Corinthians and the passage we just read for this Sunday: Jesus and Paul share the same passion for the proclamation of the Good News; they both have a sense of urgency.
One last note: Jesus' healings ought to shed some light on our discourse about suffering; if Jesus heals the sick it is because disease is an evil; if he heals at the same time that he announces the kingdom it is because evil thwarts God's benevolent plan and therefore we need to get rid of. In the first reading we heard Job crying out against his suffering, and at the end of the book, God validates Job’s rebellion. Suffering in itself is always an evil - this needs to be said; and we would be foolish to say to a sick person, "it is good that you are ill" ... Even if some, with the grace of God, find in their suffering a path for growth in holiness, the fact remains that suffering is an evil. Therefore all our efforts to alleviate human suffering are in line with God's plan. For God saves human beings, not disembodied souls; the Good News does not only speak to our intelligence or consciousness; the Good News simultaneously and inseparably strikes against everything that causes suffering.
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut, 8 février, 2015
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
RE; 02.05.15 - Readings for Sunday, February 8th-2015
February 8, 2015
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 74
Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, “When shall I arise?”
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, “When shall I arise?”
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Christ took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Alleluia Mt 8:17
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Christ took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogueJesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
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