 |
“Faith”
by Giuseppe Angeli, 1754 |
Readings for Monday of the
Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem
Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Romans 4:20-25
Brothers and sisters:
Abraham did not doubt God’s
promise in unbelief;
rather, he was empowered by
faith and gave glory to God
and was fully convinced that
what God had promised
he was also able to do.
That is why it was credited
to him as righteousness.
But it was not for him alone
that it was written
that it was credited to him;
it was also for us, to whom
it will be credited,
who believe in the one who
raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was handed over for our
transgressions
and was raised for our
justification.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rom 4:20-25
St. Paul continues to develop his “salvation through faith”
apologia. In this passage he again uses Abraham (clearly addressing a
predominantly Jewish audience) whose faith in God caused him to behave in
righteous ways. In fact, it was his unreserved faith that raised him to his
beloved status. Faith in Jesus must be on the same level since his passion was
suffered for our salvation. We note once more that the use of the word
“justification” equates to one being “just as if they had not sinned.”
CCC: Rom 4:20 146; Rom 4:25 517,
519, 654, 977
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75
R. (see 68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people.
He has come to his people and
set them free.
He has raised up for us a
mighty savior,
born of the house of his
servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord,
the God of Israel;
he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he
promised of old
that he would save us from
our enemies,
from the hands of all who
hate us.
He promised to show mercy to
our fathers
and to remember his holy
covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord,
the God of Israel;
he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to
our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands
of our enemies,
free to worship him without
fear,
holy and righteous in his
sight all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord,
the God of Israel;
he has come to his people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75
These strophes are the opening lines of the great Canticle of Zechariah
sung to the newborn St. John the Baptist by his father at the occasion of his naming.
He reminds the infant St. John that God is faithful to his promises and
proclaims the Savior’s mission of salvation, a promise to Abraham, as a
fulfillment of that promise. These introductory verses serve as a profession of
faith in God and the Messiah of whom St. John will be the forerunner. Zechariah
sings of the salvation first promised to Abraham, now to be fulfilled in Jesus.
CCC: Lk 1:73 706
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to
Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to
share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as
your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against
all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist
of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose
land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall
I do,
for I do not have space to
store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I
shall do:
I shall tear down my barns
and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my
grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself,
“Now as for you,
you have so many good things
stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your
life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have
prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one
who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters
to God.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 12:13-21
The passage begins with Jesus refusing to provide rabbinical
guidance to a person in the crowd. Such guidance is provided in Numbers 27:1-11 and Deuteronomy 21:15ff, but the
Lord saw greed at the root of the request. He uses the parable (found only in
Luke) of the rich landowner (fool in some translations) to emphasize the
need to focus on the spiritual gifts that do not perish, not just on
material goods. He tells the one who wishes to have Jesus arbitrate a
dispute with that person’s brother to take care against greed.
The parable has elements of other stories used by Jesus in which
the unpredictability of the end of life is emphasized. Speaking to the crowd,
the Lord tells them to focus on those spiritual attributes without delay. St.
Athanasius used these words: “A person who lives as if he were to die every
day- given that our life is uncertain by definition- will not sin, for good
fear extinguishes most of the disorder of our appetites; whereas he who thinks
he has a long life ahead of him will easily let himself be dominated by pleasures
(Adversus Antigonum).” [4]
CCC: Lk 12:13-14 549
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
The Gospel message today is,
for the adult living in the modern world, one of the most difficult of Jesus’
axioms to come to grips with. Society
views people with many possessions as being successful. In every human culture this is true. If one lives comfortably free from financial
worries, content with all the food they need, having substantial property and
creature comforts, that person is considered to have spent their effort and
life well.
Yet today, the Lord tells his
“friend” to be careful not to fall victim to the sin of greed. We ask ourselves, when does our
responsibility to family and to self stop being “responsibility” and start
becoming greed? Let’s examine that
tipping point in our attitudes.
We are taught in the “school
of life” that our lives are to be spent providing the following for the family
of which we are a part: first, a place to live, a home. This is shelter from the elements and safety
from natural predators. Second, we are
to provide food for ourselves and our family.
In an agrarian society this meant either tending crops or herds of
animals (we are skipping the “hunter gatherer” stage). In a modern family this means multiple
members of the family may work outside the home to provide income for food and
to maintain the domicile.
This is where things start to
get blurry. What exactly are we working
for? This question varies depending on
where we live in the world, but, in all cases, there is a point at which what
we work for drives our effort beyond what we need into what we want, in short
our greed. At some point each person
must evaluate the balance of their effort and ask: “Am I doing this because I
need (a bigger house, another car, the latest sound systems, a pool) or because
I want?"
In some, this distinction
becomes irrelevant since they do not understand that there is something more
important than having the best or the most of everything. There are others who believe that society
owes them the basics (shelter and food), and that they are not required to do
anything but accept this charity, squandering their efforts, or worse making no
effort at all.
We, however, as disciples of
Christ, must take a close look at the balance of our life’s efforts. We need to spend enough of our effort
providing for ourselves and our families, and much of the rest developing that
treasure for the heavenly kingdom. The
difficult part of this equation is finding that balance. It is so easy to rationalize that working for
something that falls into the greed category is really a need.
For us the tool to help us
find the right balance is prayer. The
Lord prayed constantly. Elsewhere in St.
Luke’s Gospel we are told to pray persistently for guidance. That is where we need to be as we pursue the
use of the talents our Lord gave us. We
receive, with gratitude, what is offered for the greater glory of God, and use
those resources in a balanced way. And if in so doing, we gain more than we
need, we are generous to the poor. We
remember that it is for God’s glory we do what we do, and it is his treasure we
truly value.
Pax
[1]
The picture is “Faith” by Giuseppe Angeli, 1754.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[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 republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
[4]
The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002,
p.437.
No comments:
Post a Comment