2018/03/04 — 3rd Sunday of Lent — Year B

First Reading — Exodus 20:1-17
Second Reading — 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel — John 2:13-25

St. Paul tells us that Jesus is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." His death and resurrection show God's power at work in him. He is the authorized spokesman who has a right to specify proper reverence for God's temple. Wisdom (reason, philosophy) seeks to understand the truth of existence: a worthy pursuit. In this, it has the immense advantage of the truth presented by the revelation of God in Jesus and in scripture, that God loves his people and offers us eternal life where all evil is overcome.

The ten commandments set out minimum standards of living in right relationship with God and with one another as members of his people. The two greatest commandments — love God with all your being; love your neighbor as yourself — provide the basis and context for the ten, as well as for all the developments elsewhere in the Torah, the prophets, and the teachings of Jesus.

Do we regard God's law as a burden or do we see it as the Jews regard Torah, a great gift, as expressed in the responsorial psalm (Ps. 19:8-11)? There we say, "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. … They are more precious than gold …; sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb."

The scriptures of this day point us toward Easter and invite us to renew our faith in Jesus as the one sent by God to save us and bring us into holiness and eternal life through his teachings and above all through his death and resurrection which are not only salvific in themselves but also the proof of his Messiahship.

2017/02/12 — 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

If we look for the unifying thread between the first reading and the gospel, we might call it something like "observing the Law."


The first reading — Sirach 15:15-20 — insists that, "If you choose you can keep the commandments." We have free will. We can't employ the excuse, "The Devil made me do it."This year, the weekday Mass first readings are from Genesis. We heard on Monday through Thursday of the creation on the world and of man and woman. On Friday came the story of the fall, and on Saturday, the result, with Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent. God does not accept the excuses: all three are guilty and all three suffer the consequences. Similarly, Sirach tells us, we will experience the good or evil consequences of our good or evil choices. God knows what we do.


The responsorial psalm — verses of Psalm 119 — praises those who follow the law of the Lord and prays the we will know and obey it fully.


In the gospel — Matthew 5:17-37 — Jesus affirms the Law as valid, and tells us that our observance of it must go beyond the literal minimum. We must refrain from anger as well as murder. Of course, there are instances when we react emotionally with anger at evil, but we must not stoke that anger and hold on to it. Instead, we are to forgive and be reconciled with one another. We must refrain from lust as well as adultery. Of course we are attracted by a beautiful person, but we must not let the involuntary attraction turn to lust — which St. John Paul II says occurs when we fail to regard the person as one who has the inviolable dignity of a human person and instead make her/him an object for our own pleasure. Note also that he specifies that adultery includes marrying a divorced person unless the former marriage was invalid. Finally, we must refrain from deceptive speech as well as perjury. We should be fundamentally honest, so that it will not be necessary to put us on oath to be sure we are telling the truth.

Judaism has always regarded the Law as God's supreme gift to Israel, something not only to be studied and observed, bit something to be joyful about. The giving of the Law proves God's love for his people. Jesus tells us that we should take it to heart, and when we do, our observance will go beyond a literalist minimum. Our attitude won't be "How far can I go before I've broken a commandment?" but, "How is God asking me to live?"


St. Paul tells us in the second reading — 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 — that God's wisdom is far above human wisdom. God's wisdom is aimed at providing us with a glorified existence far beyond anything we could imagine. Those who love God, as witnessed by their keeping the commandments, will receive what God has prepared — in line with Sirach's statement that keeping the commandments will save us and trust in God will bring life. Jesus also says that we must follow the Law as he explains it if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven.

2016/07/10 — 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C

On this Sunday, we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan. It comes as part of a dialogue initiated with a question about what one must do. Our first reading assures us that God's law (what we must do) is not difficult to know.


The first reading — Deuteronomy 30:10-14 — presents Moses pleading with the people —us — to heed the voice of the Lord expressed for them in the book of the law. But it is not merely a matter of careful adherence to specific commands. It is a matter of returning to the Lord with all one's heart and all one's soul — phrases which find their echo in the gospel for today. The law is not remote or arcane. It is already in our hearts, planted there by God. James 1:21 speaks of "the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls." It is a word of which we must be doers, not just hearers.


There are two alternative responsorial psalms. The first — verses of Psalm 69 — tis the prayer of one who is in distress, followed by a promise of help from God. It puts us n the place of the victim in the gospel who is rescued by the Good Samaritan. The second — Psalm 19:8-11 — is praise of God's law.


The gospel — Luke 10:25-37 — presents a scholar of the law asking Jesus what he must do to be saved. Jesus asks him for his opinion. The scholar gives what seems to have been a commonly held opinion at the time, and Jesus endorses it. It is a matter of loving God with one's whole being and loving one's neighbor as oneself. It is worth noting that neither the scholar nor Jesus specifically references the ten commandments, much less the entirety of the specific commands of the law. A slavish obedience to rules done without love, but out of fear, is not what God seeks. When we are animated by love, our specific good deeds will have value. This is also the underlying principle in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's gospel. Mere observance of the commandments is not enough. The spirit behind the commandments must form our actions so that we transcend the commandments.


It may  be that the scholar was asking his question in the sense of seeking to kow what was the minimum standard of conduct. His follow-up question, "Who is my neighbor," can be read as an attempt to establish a limit to the breadth of the love that is commanded. At any rate, Jesus refuses to set any limit. The scholar must follow the example of the Good Samaritan. Given the mutual hostility between Jews and Samaritans, it would have been easy enough for a Samaritan to be unwilling to help a Jew. But this Samaritan loves the Jew as himself, not merely in some theoretical way, but with a love that leads to action. Jesus is saying that all people, without exception, are the neighbors we must love, and if that love is genuine, we will help those we can when they are in distress.


There may be an implication also that there are some rules which love must override. The avoidance of the victim by the priest and the levite may have been because they would incur ritual impurity by touching the victim. But that rule should not have been controlling in such an urgent case of need.


Finally, in the light of the first alternative responsorial psalm, we can see ourselves as the victims in a spiritual sense. We are sinners, in danger of spiritual death if left to ourselves. But Jesus comes to our rescue, taking on our humanity and giving the care we need — namely his own life, on the cross.


The second reading — Colossians 1:15-20 — is the first of several that we will hear from this epistle. It is not intended to have any direct connection with the other two readings, although the emphasis on Jesus' work as savior does correspond with the interpretation of the gospel which sees him as the Good Samaritan par excellence. We can see much of it reflected in the creed we recite at Sunday Mass.
"[T] image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" —"[T]he Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages." 
[I]n him were created all things in heaven and on earth." —"[T]hrough him all things were made."
"He is the head if the body, the church." — "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church."
"He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." — "[H]e suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day."
"[T]hat in all things he himself might be preeminent." — "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father."
The final lines of the reading recapitulate these passages of the creed, while expanding what it says about Jesus saving work on our behalf.