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| “Monk Copies a Manuscript” Artist and Date are UNKNOWN |
Reading 1: Ezra
9:5-9
At the time of the evening
sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness,
and with cloak and mantle
torn I fell on my knees,
stretching out my hands to
the LORD, my God.
I said: “My God, I am too
ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you,
O my God, for our wicked
deeds are heaped up above our heads
and our guilt reaches up to
heaven.
From the time of our fathers
even to this day
great has been our guilt,
and for our wicked deeds we
have been delivered up,
we and our kings and our
priests,
to the will of the kings of
foreign lands,
to the sword, to captivity,
to pillage, and to disgrace,
as is the case today.
“And now, but a short time
ago, mercy came to us from the LORD, our God,
who left us a remnant and
gave us a stake in his holy place;
thus our God has brightened
our eyes
and given us relief in our
servitude.
For slaves we are, but in our
servitude our God has not abandoned us;
rather, he has turned the
good will
of the kings of Persia
Thus he has given us new life
to raise again the house of
our God and restore its ruins,
and has granted us a fence in
Judah and Jerusalem
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Commentary on Ezr 9:5-9
This passage from
the Book of Ezra is a prayer of atonement lamenting the situation in Jerusalem Jerusalem and Judah
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Responsorial Psalm: Tobit 13:2, 3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8
R. (1b) Blessed be God, who lives for ever.
He scourges and then has
mercy;
he casts down to the depths
of the nether world,
and he brings up from the
great abyss.
No one can escape his hand.
R. Blessed be God, who
lives for ever.
Praise him, you children of Israel
for though he has scattered
you among them,
he has shown you his
greatness even there.
R. Blessed be God, who
lives for ever.
So now consider what he has
done for you,
and praise him with full
voice.
Bless the Lord of
righteousness,
and exalt the King of ages.
R. Blessed be God, who
lives for ever.
In the land of my exile I
praise him
and show his power and
majesty to a sinful nation.
R. Blessed be God, who
lives for ever.
Bless the Lord, all you his
chosen ones,
and may all of you praise his
majesty.
Celebrate days of gladness,
and give him praise.
R. Blessed be God, who
lives for ever.
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Commentary on Tobit 13:2,
3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8
This psalm and
response are taken from the Book of Tobit. It is the response to the Archangel
Raphael’s instruction to give thanks to God for his blessings. It is a hymn of
praise and thanksgiving to God for his help and salvation. It recalls
the Diaspora and the Restoration of Israel.
Echoing the prayer of Ezra (Ezra 9:6), it recalls that it was through God’s mercy that these things were
accomplished rather than the merit of a sinful people.
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Gospel: Luke 9:1-6
Jesus summoned the Twelve and
gave them power and authority
over all demons and to cure
diseases,
and he sent them to proclaim
the Kingdom of God
and to heal the sick.
He said to them, “Take
nothing for the journey,
neither walking stick, nor
sack, nor food, nor money,
and let no one take a second
tunic.
Whatever house you enter,
stay there and leave from there.
And as for those who do not
welcome you,
when you leave that town,
shake the dust from your feet
in testimony against them.”
Then they set out and went
from village to village
proclaiming the good news and
curing diseases everywhere.
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Commentary on Lk
9:1-6
St. Luke’s description of the
mission of the twelve is also recounted (with some differences) in Mark 6:7-13 and Matthew 10:1-9,11,14.
Because of these differences (e.g. Matthew and Luke forbid a staff and sandals
but Mark allows them, and assuming that St. Mark’s Gospel was closest to Jesus
words, we can assume that Matthew and Luke were spiritualizing Jesus;
instructions to a point. Similarly, “because of the necessity of shaking off
foreign dust before entering the Jerusalem Temple and the prohibition against
bringing profane money into the sacred precincts (John 2:14), the passage can be
interpreted metaphorically: in all your undertakings, act as though you are
standing in God’s presence; enter the home of each Christian as you would the
Temple of God.”[4]
“Armed with the power and
authority that Jesus himself has been displaying in the previous episodes, the
Twelve are now sent out to continue the work that Jesus has been performing
throughout his Galilean ministry:” They are to rely completely on the Lord,
being part of the world but set apart from it.[5]
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Reflection:
Jesus summoned the Apostles
(no longer just disciples) and gave them power and authority and sent them
out. That same “summoning and sending”
has been taking place ever since the Lord handed the keys to the Kingdom of God
to St. Peter. We might ask; “Then why do
all Christians not have the same authority the same power over diseases and
evil spirits? We are all summoned, we
are all sent.”
That is actually a very good
question. Why can’t each of us heal with
a word, cure with a touch? The answer,
we propose, can be likened to making a copy of a document. Not like we do today by placing it into an
electronic copier (in the old days a Xerox machine) or scanning it into a
computer. No it’s like making a copy the
way the monks did sacred manuscripts in the middle ages. Some of the copies turned out were works of
art – accurate to the finest detail; exact replicas of the manuscript in its
original form. Others suffered small
errors and those errors were copied by subsequent copyists etc. We could go into great detail here comparing
flaws in the paper used or the ink available.
The words could have been transliterated or changed. The results, in many cases, caused meaning to
be changed or lost.
The really good copies, those
illuminated manuscripts, the real works of art are analogous to the
Saints. They captured most clearly the
intent of Jesus when he summoned the twelve and sent them. We see in them the authority that he passed
on to the twelve, the authority we know was effective because later we will
hear in the same Gospel how excited they were at their own success.
This mission is passed on to
us. Our ability to be effective in the
work of the Apostles – now the broader work of the Holy Church, is limited by
our understanding of Jesus and his will for us. Essentially, using the analogy
above; how good is our internalized copy of the revealed Son of God? The more
perfectly we understand the Lord; the more deeply we delve into his mind and
heart, the more effective and powerful we can be in accomplishing the tasks he
sets before all of us.
What limits us is our human
nature; that which we cannot suppress in spite of our best intentions. As we continue to seek the will of the Lord
who calls and sends us, let us pray that God will also strengthen us with his
Holy Spirit that we may more perfectly put on the mind of Christ, His Only
Begotten Son.
Pax
[2]
The picture is “Monk Copies a Manuscript” Artist and Date are UNKNOWN
[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.
[4]
See Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc., © 1968, 44:84 pp.140
[5]
See NAB footnote on Luke 9:1-6
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