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| “Study of an Apostle's Hands (Praying Hands), Albrecht Dürer, c. 1508 |
Reading 1: 2 Corinthians 11:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
If only you would put up with
a little foolishness from me!
Please put up with me.
For I am jealous of you with
the jealousy of God,
since I betrothed you to one
husband
to present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that, as the
serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,
your thoughts may be
corrupted
from a sincere and pure commitment
to Christ.
For if someone comes and
preaches another Jesus than the one we preached,
or if you receive a different
spirit from the one you received
or a different gospel from
the one you accepted,
you put up with it well
enough.
For I think that I am not in
any way inferior to these "superapostles."
Even if I am untrained in
speaking, I am not so in knowledge;
in every way we have made
this plain to you in all things.
Did I make a mistake when I
humbled myself so that you might be exalted,
because I preached the Gospel
of God to you without charge?
I plundered other churches by
accepting from them
in order to minister to you.
And when I was with you and
in need, I did not burden anyone,
for the brothers who came
from Macedonia
supplied my needs.
So I refrained and will
refrain from burdening you in any way.
By the truth of Christ in me,
this boast of mine shall not
be silenced
in the regions of Achaia.
And why? Because I do not love you?
God knows I do!
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Commentary on 2
Cor 11:1-11
In the first part
of this selection we hear St. Paul being somewhat ironic as he chastises the Church
in Corinth about listening to false prophets and those teaching an unorthodox
vision of the Gospel (in this instance it sounds as if there may be some
heretical teachings on the nature of Christ).
He goes on to ask them if they reject the message because it was brought
to them free of charge and refers to his support coming from other Christian
communities while he stayed in Corinth.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 111:1b-2, 3-4, 7-8
R. (7a) Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to the
LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly
of the just.
Great are the works of the
LORD,
exquisite in all their
delights.
R. Your works, O Lord, are
justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Majesty and glory are his
work,
and his justice endures
forever.
He has won renown for his
wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the
LORD.
R. Your works, O Lord, are
justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The works of his hands are
faithful and just;
sure are all his precepts,
Reliable forever and ever,
wrought in truth and equity.
R. Your works, O Lord, are
justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps
111:1b-2, 3-4, 7-8
Psalm 111 is a
hymn of thanksgiving. In this selection
we find the singer giving thanks for God’s guidance and His works of creation
and salvation.
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Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In praying, do not
babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be
heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you
need before you ask him.
"This is how you are to
pray:
'Our Father who art in
heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread;
and forgive us our
trespasses,
as we forgive those who
trespass against us;
and lead us not into
temptation,
but deliver us from evil.'
"If you forgive others
their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will
forgive you.
But if you do not forgive
others,
neither will your Father
forgive your transgressions."
Commentary on Mt 6:7-15
This Gospel passage from St.
Matthew actually interrupts the pattern in the Sermon on the Mount in which
Jesus is clarifying the spirit of the Law regarding almsgiving, prayer, and
fasting. In the presentation of the Lord’s prayer, St. Matthew differs from the
presentation by St. Luke (Luke
11; 1-4) in which the Lord was asked by the disciples how to pray. This
passage begins by telling the disciples “do not babble like the pagans”. This
may also be critical of the Jewish tradition of presenting long lists petitions
to God for help. The idea being the same; “Your Father knows what you need
before you ask him.”
The prayer in St. Matthew has
seven petitions (compared to six in St. Luke). The first three are synonymous,
asking that God’s ultimate reign at the Eschaton be brought to fulfillment. The
request for “daily bread” has a couple of possible inflections beyond the
obvious. It may be related to the petition in Matthew 6: 31-33 (“So do not worry and say, 'What are
we to eat?'”) and it may also be referring to the Messianic banquet of the
Eucharist. Using this interpretation, the fourth petition continues the intent
of the first three.
The fifth petition, “…forgive
us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” is, in
spite of the denominational tradition, best translated as “debts”. In St.
Luke’s version, the word used was “sins”, an easier word for non-Jewish
readers. Regardless of the transliteration, the precondition for forgiveness
given is that we ourselves forgive.
“…lead us not into temptation”
is likely not intended to mean our daily encounter with “evil” or the “evil
one”. St. Matthew would agree with St. Paul, that God would easily avoid the
evil of the world (1
Corinthians 10: 13). Rather the likely meaning would be that we not be lead
to great test that is despair at the tribulations of the Eschaton (the end times).
Similarly the final petition, “…deliver us from evil” also would focus
on the Christian hope of salvation rather than damnation.
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Homily:
The Lord’s Prayer is likely
the most used prayer of our faith. It is
used in nearly every celebration of the Church from the Mass to devotions such
as the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, and the Divine Mercy. It is prayed at meetings, at meal times, and
at almost any occasion where communal prayer is offered. It is ironic, then that such an important
prayer can become mere babbling as
St. Matthew put it in his Gospel.
We are all guilty of
sprinting through the Lord’s Prayer.
There are many times when even the individual words are uttered either
out loud or silently with such speed that the seven petitions we place before
God are indistinguishable noise. Even to
ourselves.
Jesus warned about this in
his opening remarks from the Gospel we heard today. He told the disciples “do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what
you need before you ask him.” Our Heavenly knows our needs before we ask
him! Yet we must recognize our need to
offer him praise and honor. Our uttered
prayer is to remind us that we need his strength, his guidance, and his mercy
to come to the place he has prepared for us.
We listen to those words of
prayer as we recall our wish that we might receive the reward of eternal life,
pledged in covenant with God as Christ’s sacrifice sealed it with his
blood. We hear the deeper meaning of our
request of “daily bread”. It is not food
for our table. Rather our admittance to
the eternal Eucharistic banquet. We pray
to be forgiven, knowing that God has offered forgiveness at a great price paid
by our Savior and we recall that before we might accept God’s forgiveness, we
must also forgive.
Finally, we beg God to keep
us courageous in the face of the trials we will surly face. As we ask to be freed from temptation, we
recognize it is temptation to fall into despair, to forget we are precious in
the eyes of the Lord. That same
temptation placed before our Lord as he prayed in the Garden the night he was
betrayed. And we conclude with the great
hope that our merciful Father will welcome us at last to His Heavenly Kingdom,
rescuing us from the eternal fall.
When next we pray this great
prayer left to us by Jesus, let us hear the words we pray and let our spirit
offer the praise God desires of his adopted children.
Pax
[2]
The picture today is “Study of an Apostle's Hands (Praying Hands), Albrecht
Dürer, c. 1508
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
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