9th A
With this Gospel passage, Matthew has Jesus returning to a theme which is pronounced in his Gospel. The theme is: words are not enough. Action is required. But this passage also shows that even some actions aren’t what Jesus is requiring, e.g.”did we not prophesy in your name..., drive out demons in your name..., mighty deeds in your name?” IN YOUR NAME is not sufficient. .The proper actions have been outlined by Jesus previously in this sermon on the Mount.”the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” There must be an integrity between inner commitment and external actions (6:1-18)
Verses 24-27 may be viewed as a parable in two scenes. It warns and exhorts. “Everyone who listens to (hears) these words of mine and acts on them...” Again hearing and acting are joined. Jesus has articulated God’s will.
“will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”“...floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house...” Challenges and threats are part of the following of Jesus. “But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.”
This is followed by contrasting the “fool, who built his house on sand” and contrasting the result “And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
Both the wise and foolish live together. For the disciples there is both a warning of the terrible consequences of hearing and not doing, and encouragement that if they hear and do Jesus’ teaching, they will be vindicated through the judgment.
Attendance at Mass allows us to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Mass is ended the task of doing the will of Jesus, which is the will of the Father, must begin and be carried out. How many people compartmentalize their attendance at Mass and separate it from the living out of the teachings of Jesus? What actions will I do this week to actualize the teachings of Jesus?
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
8th A
8 A
Introduction: Raymond Brown comments on this part of Matthew’s Gospel: “At our time when a consumer society is very concerned with the best in clothes and food and when a great deal of energy is put into being sure that we have financial security for the future, the Matthean Jesus’ challenge not to worry about what to eat, or to wear, or about tomorrow may be even more biting than in his own time.” Christ in the Gospels of Ordinary Time, p. 25
WORRY is a recurring word in this section. It clearly is a recurring reality to us today. The word is used at least five times in this passage. Warren Carter, p. 176 “Do not worry. It forbids what many, in an age of anxiety, clearly do, provoked by political and socioeconomic injustices as well as by philosophical and religious uncertainties.” This observation contains words that have their own bite in our time.
It is interesting that Matthew balances male and female roles in talking about the birds and then grass. Birds “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns” (traditional outdoor male roles); Wild Flowers “neither toil nor spin (traditional female roles).
It is also significant that the first reading uses an image of God that is feminine: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”
“You of little faith” This term will be used of the apostles three more times in the Gospel (8:26; 14:31; 16:8). It is true of us too. Carter, p. 178 “...indicates not the absence of any faith, but little faith which must grow stronger and not be swamped or paralyzed by apparently overwhelming circumstances. It is to grow by discerning God’s immensely powerful, faithful and gracious sovereignty in creation, which Jesus promises is available to trusting disciples.” What are the overwhelming circumstances that we feel in our lives? Some might point to the war in Afghanistan, some to gun control, some to universal health care, some to immigration policy, some..... What am I, as a disciple of Jesus, called to do in my desire to strive?
“Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things” The promise is for what we need, no excess or luxury.
“Strive first for the empire/reign and its justice/righteousness.” Strive means active doing. What does this mean for me?
In Matthew’s time the disciples were living in the pervasive contexts of worry and trouble/evil. We surely identify with this reality.
WORRY, FAITH, STRIVE.
Introduction: Raymond Brown comments on this part of Matthew’s Gospel: “At our time when a consumer society is very concerned with the best in clothes and food and when a great deal of energy is put into being sure that we have financial security for the future, the Matthean Jesus’ challenge not to worry about what to eat, or to wear, or about tomorrow may be even more biting than in his own time.” Christ in the Gospels of Ordinary Time, p. 25
WORRY is a recurring word in this section. It clearly is a recurring reality to us today. The word is used at least five times in this passage. Warren Carter, p. 176 “Do not worry. It forbids what many, in an age of anxiety, clearly do, provoked by political and socioeconomic injustices as well as by philosophical and religious uncertainties.” This observation contains words that have their own bite in our time.
It is interesting that Matthew balances male and female roles in talking about the birds and then grass. Birds “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns” (traditional outdoor male roles); Wild Flowers “neither toil nor spin (traditional female roles).
It is also significant that the first reading uses an image of God that is feminine: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”
“You of little faith” This term will be used of the apostles three more times in the Gospel (8:26; 14:31; 16:8). It is true of us too. Carter, p. 178 “...indicates not the absence of any faith, but little faith which must grow stronger and not be swamped or paralyzed by apparently overwhelming circumstances. It is to grow by discerning God’s immensely powerful, faithful and gracious sovereignty in creation, which Jesus promises is available to trusting disciples.” What are the overwhelming circumstances that we feel in our lives? Some might point to the war in Afghanistan, some to gun control, some to universal health care, some to immigration policy, some..... What am I, as a disciple of Jesus, called to do in my desire to strive?
“Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things” The promise is for what we need, no excess or luxury.
“Strive first for the empire/reign and its justice/righteousness.” Strive means active doing. What does this mean for me?
In Matthew’s time the disciples were living in the pervasive contexts of worry and trouble/evil. We surely identify with this reality.
WORRY, FAITH, STRIVE.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Third World Biblical insights of women
BIBLICAL INSIGHTS FROM: Hope Abundant (Third World and Indigenous Women’s Theology) editor, Kwok Pui-lan
p59ff “For us women from the Christian tradition, the task if to reflect anew on the role of the Bible in our lives, in our struggles, in the modification of our behavior...In the last twenty years, I believe, a particular phase of the struggle has been achieved. Through the contributions of many intellecvtuals and popular readings, we have succeeded in relativizing the written text and in seeing what is written as constrained by a historical, cultural, political, social and male perspective.”
P.104 “It needs to be somehow impressed upon women and men that many of the biblical statements that are considered oppressive are not necessaril factual or normative, nor do they reflect reality, but are often the wishful projections of male authors in situations where it was felt that women needed to be controlled since women were more assertive and successful.”
P. 112 “In the context of a multi-scriptural environment, ‘scripture’ understood as revelation that is canonized but not closed is essential for authentic and meaningful exegesis of the biblical text.”
P. 113 “The ‘Word of God’ is not absolute or ahistorical.”
P. 115 “This calls for what Tissa Balasuriya calls a ‘new hermeneutic,’...this involves recognition of the fact that there is a distinction between God’s revelation at a given time as expressed by the author and how the meaning of a text is interpreted in the cultural context of another time.”
P.181 “What alienates some African women is the interpretation of revelation that suggests that before Jesus Africans had not encountered God and that without Jesus all are doomed. Christian exclusiveness is in large measure not biblical and must therefore not be allowed to become an obstacle in the multi-religious communities of Africa.
P. 223 “The major problem of African Christians is their uncritical reading of the Bible...”
P. 233 “The Bible was born out of a culture that honored men and despised women and so it reflected this phenomenon. If we pay no attention to historical context and background in our biblical interpretation, but simply apply things mechanically, we turn the revelation of God into a fossilized word, and not the living Word.”
p59ff “For us women from the Christian tradition, the task if to reflect anew on the role of the Bible in our lives, in our struggles, in the modification of our behavior...In the last twenty years, I believe, a particular phase of the struggle has been achieved. Through the contributions of many intellecvtuals and popular readings, we have succeeded in relativizing the written text and in seeing what is written as constrained by a historical, cultural, political, social and male perspective.”
P.104 “It needs to be somehow impressed upon women and men that many of the biblical statements that are considered oppressive are not necessaril factual or normative, nor do they reflect reality, but are often the wishful projections of male authors in situations where it was felt that women needed to be controlled since women were more assertive and successful.”
P. 112 “In the context of a multi-scriptural environment, ‘scripture’ understood as revelation that is canonized but not closed is essential for authentic and meaningful exegesis of the biblical text.”
P. 113 “The ‘Word of God’ is not absolute or ahistorical.”
P. 115 “This calls for what Tissa Balasuriya calls a ‘new hermeneutic,’...this involves recognition of the fact that there is a distinction between God’s revelation at a given time as expressed by the author and how the meaning of a text is interpreted in the cultural context of another time.”
P.181 “What alienates some African women is the interpretation of revelation that suggests that before Jesus Africans had not encountered God and that without Jesus all are doomed. Christian exclusiveness is in large measure not biblical and must therefore not be allowed to become an obstacle in the multi-religious communities of Africa.
P. 223 “The major problem of African Christians is their uncritical reading of the Bible...”
P. 233 “The Bible was born out of a culture that honored men and despised women and so it reflected this phenomenon. If we pay no attention to historical context and background in our biblical interpretation, but simply apply things mechanically, we turn the revelation of God into a fossilized word, and not the living Word.”
Sunday, February 13, 2011
7th A
7th A
Introduction: Last Sunday we heard Jesus say to us: “...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”
Today God says to us in the 1st reading from the Book of Leviticus: “Be holy, for I, the Lord, you God am holy.” In the Gospel Jesus says to us: “...you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Those are ways of stating the theory. But then the first reading gets down to particulars. “You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen,
do not incur sin because of him.
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD.”
There are three DON’TS 1) Don’t bear hatred in your heart for your brother, 2) take no revenge, 3) do not cherish a grudge for your countryman. These “don’ts” are followed by one “Do”. You shall love your neighbor as yourself..
In the second reading Paul speaks to the Corinthians and us about our dignity as temples of God. He also calls us to be wise in the ways of God.
The Gospel of this Sunday is the real killer. Jesus tells us that aggression is not to be returned and that we are to love not just our neighbor but even our ENEMY AND PRAY FOR OUR PERSECUTORS.
It is important to understand verse 39a. Our translation reads: “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” Barbara Reid in her commentary informs us: “Verse 39a is best translated “do not retaliate against the evildoer.” The verb in Greek most often carries the connotation “resist violently” or “armed resistance in military encounters” (e.g.Eph 6:13)
Warren Carter translates this sentence: “Do not violently resist an evildoer.” The strange NRSV translation Do not resist an evildoer (or evil) forbids self protection...” and invites a submissive approach to tyrants. Prior to this four scenes have exhorted the audience to resist doing evil! Following this Verses 39-42 offer scenes of resisting oppressive power. Armed revolt or submission are not the only alternatives. Jesus’ third way is active nonviolent resistance. “Four somewhat witty yet serious examples of this active nonviolent resistance follow.”
1) “turn the other cheek” Warren writes: “Rather than be subdued into nonresponsiveness, and rather than lashing out in violence and continuing the cycle, Jesus teaches a third response: turn the other also. This action shows that one has not been intimidated or provoked into uncontrolled actions. It is a chosen, active, nonviolent response to a system designed to humiliate. The chosen action refuses submission, asserts dignity and humanness and challenges what is supposed to demean. It refuses the superior the power to humiliate.”
2) “give your cloak as well” This means to strip oneself naked in court. By standing naked before one’s creditor who has both garments in his hand, one shames and dishonors the creditor.
3) “go also the second mile” It is a strategy for responding to what is intended to humiliate by refusing to be humiliated. It would also threaten the Soldier that he might be brought to task for what happened.
4) “give to him who begs” It counters a cultural understanding of giving as benefiting the giver or benefactor’s reputation and social position, and obligating the recipient to reciprocate by enhancing the patron’s status.
“Do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” This means setting aside reciprocity and benefits from repayment, high interest rates, or default.
Jesus offers four examples of nonviolent resistance to oppressive power. They are examples of creative, imaginative strategies which break the circle of violence. The servile refuse to be humiliated; the subjugated take initiative by acting with dignity and humanity in the midst of and against injustice and oppression which seem permanent.
W.Wink describes Jesus’ third way (active non violent resistance) in phrases such as: Seize the moral initiative, find a creative alternative to violence, assert your own humanity and dignity as a person, meet force with ridicule or humor, break the cycle of humiliation, refuse the inferior position, shame the oppressor, be willing to suffer. Such actions exhibit different relationships and manifest the destabilizing, transforming reign of God..
Barbara Reid sums up the command to love our enemies and pray for them in these words: “Giving loving treatment only to one’s own people does not adequately fulfill the Law. Verse 48 sums up: “There must be no limits to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness known no bounds” (cf. NAB: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”).”
Introduction: Last Sunday we heard Jesus say to us: “...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”
Today God says to us in the 1st reading from the Book of Leviticus: “Be holy, for I, the Lord, you God am holy.” In the Gospel Jesus says to us: “...you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Those are ways of stating the theory. But then the first reading gets down to particulars. “You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen,
do not incur sin because of him.
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD.”
There are three DON’TS 1) Don’t bear hatred in your heart for your brother, 2) take no revenge, 3) do not cherish a grudge for your countryman. These “don’ts” are followed by one “Do”. You shall love your neighbor as yourself..
In the second reading Paul speaks to the Corinthians and us about our dignity as temples of God. He also calls us to be wise in the ways of God.
The Gospel of this Sunday is the real killer. Jesus tells us that aggression is not to be returned and that we are to love not just our neighbor but even our ENEMY AND PRAY FOR OUR PERSECUTORS.
It is important to understand verse 39a. Our translation reads: “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” Barbara Reid in her commentary informs us: “Verse 39a is best translated “do not retaliate against the evildoer.” The verb in Greek most often carries the connotation “resist violently” or “armed resistance in military encounters” (e.g.Eph 6:13)
Warren Carter translates this sentence: “Do not violently resist an evildoer.” The strange NRSV translation Do not resist an evildoer (or evil) forbids self protection...” and invites a submissive approach to tyrants. Prior to this four scenes have exhorted the audience to resist doing evil! Following this Verses 39-42 offer scenes of resisting oppressive power. Armed revolt or submission are not the only alternatives. Jesus’ third way is active nonviolent resistance. “Four somewhat witty yet serious examples of this active nonviolent resistance follow.”
1) “turn the other cheek” Warren writes: “Rather than be subdued into nonresponsiveness, and rather than lashing out in violence and continuing the cycle, Jesus teaches a third response: turn the other also. This action shows that one has not been intimidated or provoked into uncontrolled actions. It is a chosen, active, nonviolent response to a system designed to humiliate. The chosen action refuses submission, asserts dignity and humanness and challenges what is supposed to demean. It refuses the superior the power to humiliate.”
2) “give your cloak as well” This means to strip oneself naked in court. By standing naked before one’s creditor who has both garments in his hand, one shames and dishonors the creditor.
3) “go also the second mile” It is a strategy for responding to what is intended to humiliate by refusing to be humiliated. It would also threaten the Soldier that he might be brought to task for what happened.
4) “give to him who begs” It counters a cultural understanding of giving as benefiting the giver or benefactor’s reputation and social position, and obligating the recipient to reciprocate by enhancing the patron’s status.
“Do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” This means setting aside reciprocity and benefits from repayment, high interest rates, or default.
Jesus offers four examples of nonviolent resistance to oppressive power. They are examples of creative, imaginative strategies which break the circle of violence. The servile refuse to be humiliated; the subjugated take initiative by acting with dignity and humanity in the midst of and against injustice and oppression which seem permanent.
W.Wink describes Jesus’ third way (active non violent resistance) in phrases such as: Seize the moral initiative, find a creative alternative to violence, assert your own humanity and dignity as a person, meet force with ridicule or humor, break the cycle of humiliation, refuse the inferior position, shame the oppressor, be willing to suffer. Such actions exhibit different relationships and manifest the destabilizing, transforming reign of God..
Barbara Reid sums up the command to love our enemies and pray for them in these words: “Giving loving treatment only to one’s own people does not adequately fulfill the Law. Verse 48 sums up: “There must be no limits to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness known no bounds” (cf. NAB: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”).”
Saturday, February 12, 2011
6th A Ordinary Time
6th A
First reading: Reminds us several times that we have the power to “choose”.
Second reading: Our God is a God of wisdom, mysterious, hidden, deep. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on us, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Gospel: We continue the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addresses several important and yet complicated questions: his view of the Law and Prophets, murder, adultery, divorce and false oaths. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary treats this section with great care and great detail. There is no room here for knee jerk understanding or interpretation.
This section is Jesus’ interpretation of several scriptures. One of the keys to understanding Jesus’ words is 5:20 “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus now declares a former understanding of the Law inadequate as he places more stringent demands on his disciples. Jesus dares explicitly to modify or correct what Tgod said through Moses. He makes the demand of the Law more penetrating
He addresses murder, adultery, divorce and oaths.
1) MURDER. Killing another person is the epitome of broken relationships. The Law given to Moses forbids killing. Jesus’ command is to defuse anger and work toward reconciliation before the rupture in the relationship reaches a murderous stage. He then gives three concrete examples. a) avoid insulting one another, b) liturgical sacrifices do not cover over broken relationships, c) he warns against letting conflicts escalate to the point of litigation in court..
However there is a good kind of anger. St. Augustine said, “Hope has two lovely daughters, anger and courage. Anger so that what should not be is not and courage so that what should be is.”
2) ADULTERY. As anger is prohibited as the first step toward murder, so the lustful look is condemned as the prelude to adultery. The androcentric language (“...everyone who looks at a woman with lust...”) reflects a society in which male concerns dominate and in which marriage is commonly patriarchal. In our culture it is not only men who look with lust.
3) DIVORCE. Building on the previous example, Jesus adds that divorce is also a form of adultery. This is addressed to males and reflects the Jewish custom that only they could initiate divorce. (This is surely different in our present society and culture.) The commentary in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “Since the matter of divorce is often painful, it is useful to remember that Jesus’ deep intent was not to cause pain but to set out a clear and high ideal of human relations, a vision of marriage as a covenant of personl love between spouses which reflects the covenant relationship of God and his people. Unfortunately this vision does not always fit the vagaries of the human heart.”
4) OATHS. Jesus insists that relations among Christians be so transparent as to end the need for taking oaths at all. “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” We must examine our personal responses and be aware that a different meaning to ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ is often experienced in our culture.
First reading: Reminds us several times that we have the power to “choose”.
Second reading: Our God is a God of wisdom, mysterious, hidden, deep. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on us, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Gospel: We continue the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addresses several important and yet complicated questions: his view of the Law and Prophets, murder, adultery, divorce and false oaths. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary treats this section with great care and great detail. There is no room here for knee jerk understanding or interpretation.
This section is Jesus’ interpretation of several scriptures. One of the keys to understanding Jesus’ words is 5:20 “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus now declares a former understanding of the Law inadequate as he places more stringent demands on his disciples. Jesus dares explicitly to modify or correct what Tgod said through Moses. He makes the demand of the Law more penetrating
He addresses murder, adultery, divorce and oaths.
1) MURDER. Killing another person is the epitome of broken relationships. The Law given to Moses forbids killing. Jesus’ command is to defuse anger and work toward reconciliation before the rupture in the relationship reaches a murderous stage. He then gives three concrete examples. a) avoid insulting one another, b) liturgical sacrifices do not cover over broken relationships, c) he warns against letting conflicts escalate to the point of litigation in court..
However there is a good kind of anger. St. Augustine said, “Hope has two lovely daughters, anger and courage. Anger so that what should not be is not and courage so that what should be is.”
2) ADULTERY. As anger is prohibited as the first step toward murder, so the lustful look is condemned as the prelude to adultery. The androcentric language (“...everyone who looks at a woman with lust...”) reflects a society in which male concerns dominate and in which marriage is commonly patriarchal. In our culture it is not only men who look with lust.
3) DIVORCE. Building on the previous example, Jesus adds that divorce is also a form of adultery. This is addressed to males and reflects the Jewish custom that only they could initiate divorce. (This is surely different in our present society and culture.) The commentary in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary states: “Since the matter of divorce is often painful, it is useful to remember that Jesus’ deep intent was not to cause pain but to set out a clear and high ideal of human relations, a vision of marriage as a covenant of personl love between spouses which reflects the covenant relationship of God and his people. Unfortunately this vision does not always fit the vagaries of the human heart.”
4) OATHS. Jesus insists that relations among Christians be so transparent as to end the need for taking oaths at all. “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” We must examine our personal responses and be aware that a different meaning to ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ is often experienced in our culture.
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