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“St Peter is Walking on the Water”
by Lluis Borrassa, 1411-13 |
Readings for Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary
Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Jeremiah 28:1-17
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah,
in the fifth month of the fourth year,
the prophet Hananiah, son of Azzur, from Gibeon,
said to me in the house of the Lord
in the presence of the priests and all the people:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Within two years I will restore to this place
all the vessels of the temple of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon.
And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah,
son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ says the Lord,
‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
The prophet Jeremiah answered the prophet Hananiah
in the presence of the priests and all the people assembled
in the house of the Lord, and said:
Amen! thus may the Lord do!
May he fulfill the things you have prophesied
by bringing the vessels of the house of the Lord
and all the exiles back from Babylon to this place!
But now, listen to what I am about to state in your hearing
and the hearing of all the people.
From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied
war, woe, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms.
But the prophet who prophesies peace
is recognized as truly sent by the Lord
only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled.
Thereupon the prophet Hananiah took the yoke
from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it,
and said in the presence of all the people:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Even so, within two years
I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
from off the neck of all the nations.’”
At that, the prophet Jeremiah went away.
Some time after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke
from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah,
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
Go tell Hananiah this:
Thus says the Lord:
By breaking a wooden yoke, you forge an iron yoke!
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
A yoke of iron I will place on the necks
of all these nations serving Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
and they shall serve him; even the beasts of the field I give him.
To the prophet Hananiah the prophet Jeremiah said:
Hear this, Hananiah!
The Lord has not sent you,
and you have raised false confidence in this people.
For this, says the Lord, I will dispatch you from the face of the
earth;
this very year you shall die,
because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.
That same year, in the seventh month, Hananiah the prophet died.
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Commentary on Jer 28:1-17
The
reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is a stern warning against false
prophets. This reading (the complete chapter 28) tells the story of Hananiah, a
false prophet, and Jeremiah. The story is biographical, and attributed once
again to Baruch. Hananiah gives the people a very sugar coated vision, that
within two years the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar (the Babylonian King who
conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and exiled the people) would come to
an end, and the temple wealth, the exiled leader, and the people would be
restored. This prediction contradicts Jeremiah’s own oracle (see Jeremiah 27).
Jeremiah
laments to the people that he too would hope for such an outcome (“May he
fulfill the things you have prophesied…”). He goes on to warn them that
prophets who predict pleasing futures can only be validated as “truly sent
by the Lord” when their oracles are seen to come true (see Deuteronomy 18:21-22).
Contradicting
Hananiah's pleasing prediction, Jeremiah is given a true vision from God. The
reign of Nebuchadnezzar will not be broken. It will be strengthened (“By
breaking a wooden yoke, you forge an iron yoke!”). Because Hananiah told
the people he was hearing God’s voice when he was simply predicting things the
leaders of the time wanted to hear, he was told (in an oracle that was
fulfilled – proving that Jeremiah was a true prophet) that he would die within
a year.
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Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 119:29, 43, 79, 80,
95, 102
R. (68b) Lord, teach me your
statutes.
Remove from me the way of falsehood,
and favor me with your law.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Take not the word of truth from my
mouth,
for in your ordinances is my hope.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Let those turn to me who fear you
and acknowledge your decrees.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Let my heart be perfect in your
statutes,
that I be not put to shame.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Sinners wait to destroy me,
but I pay heed to your decrees.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
From your ordinances I turn not away,
for you have instructed me.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
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Commentary on Ps 119:29, 43, 79, 80, 95,
102
Psalm 119 is an individual lament asking for God’s support in
times of difficulty. From this, the longest of the psalms, the strophes ask for
the psalmist to be strengthened in the truth, and given wisdom that comes from
the law.
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Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21
When
Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he
withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The
crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When
he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his
heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When
it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This
is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss
the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and
buy food for themselves.”
Jesus
said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give
them some food yourselves.”
But
they said to him,
“Five
loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then
he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
and
he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking
the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he
said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and
gave them to the disciples,
who
in turn gave them to the crowds.
They
all ate and were satisfied,
and
they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve
wicker baskets full.
Those
who ate were about five thousand men,
not
counting women and children.
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Commentary
on Mt 14:13-21
St.
Matthew’s account of the feeding of the multitudes is framed with Jesus’ grief
over hearing of the death of his cousin, St. John the Baptist. He hopes to
grieve in solitude, and so takes a boat to “a deserted place by himself.”
While it is not said explicitly, we assume at least some of the disciples
accompanied him in the boat. When the crowds catch up with him (Jesus is well
established as an important teacher now), he does not turn them away but
continues his work among them.
Possibly
continuing his formation process with the disciples, Jesus tells them to feed
the hungry people rather than dismiss them. The miracle occurs with significant
symbolic numbers associated with it. Five loaves and two fish would add up to
seven, in Hebrew numerology the perfect or most complete number. The fragments
filled twelve baskets, enough for the twelve tribes of Israel. Five thousand
men was a representation for a huge number and probably not meant as a census
of the participants.
For
the early Christian there would have been even more subtle symbolism, as the
loaves would represent the “Bread of Life,” the Eucharist, and the fish, the
Christian symbol that identified themselves to each other as a consequence of
the Greek letters used. Taken in its larger context the story is preparatory to
Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem.
CCC:
Mt 14:13-21 1335; Mt
14:19 1329
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Reflection:
Once upon a time a large ship
set out for a land that promised to be a paradise. People from all over came to the ship and all
were given tickets. The captain of the
ship knew the course they must follow, and set sail on the long and difficult
voyage. It was a journey that took such
a long time that when the captain died, a new captain was elected and given the
charts to navigate the ship.
They had traveled some
distance when arguments began to erupt about what the land would really be
like. One group said that the first mate
had a clearer understanding of the destination and the course they must follow,
so when the ship came close to an island, they got off and built their own
ship. The course they sailed was almost
identical, and they kept in sight of each other.
On board that larger ship, as
captain after captain took the helm, discipline began to get lax and a large
group of passengers decided that the captain no longer knew the way to the land
of paradise. They took life boats and
struck off on their own, some smaller and some larger, some staying close to
the mother ship, others striking out on radically different directions. They each got a copy of the charts from the
captain of the larger ship, but the charts were difficult and tricky to follow.
When last seen the various
different flotillas were headed generally in the same direction. Some had decided that, even in the smaller
boats, they had their own ideas of the directions to follow, but there was no
captain to consult and no course correction was possible. Many of these became lost.
We use this simple story to
describe the history of the Church (the mother ship). After an intense early struggle to get
everyone on board the mothership of Christianity, the first groups to leave
were the Eastern Rite churches who disagreed with some fundamental issues over
the creed. Later (around the time of the Crusades) political issues caused a
huge rift that has not been healed to this day.
The second group to break off was at the Reformation. (It is noteworthy
that printing technology facilitated the Reformation. Without inexpensive copies of the Bible, this
challenge to Church authority may not have occurred.) These protestant groups took the Bible and
ran with it, disdaining the hierarchical Church, feeling that they could figure
out how to find the Lord without any help from anyone. The independent faith communities that
evolved out of this group had no cohesive discipline of belief, and could
essentially pick and choose what parts of Scripture to accept or interpret and
which ones they didn’t like. The charts,
as the story says, are tricky and difficult to read. Not having any recourse to authority, many of
these little boats found radically different paths, many of them seemingly
headed in the wrong direction.
The Holy See has been our
constant source of direction, prayerfully considering each change of course,
constantly consulting the charts left for us by the authors of Sacred
Scripture. But they have also been able
to consult the notes left by great saints and brilliant doctors, like Saint
Alphonsus Liguori, whose memorial we celebrated recently. Throwing away the
traditions and thoughts of the great saints is like throwing away the legend to
the charts. A map without a legend is
not much more than a picture.
Today we give thanks for the
Church which leads us faithfully, unlike those who have gone off trusting only
themselves to find the destination. We
pray for the ship’s company to be reunited, and rejoice at the thought of one
Church, One Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Pax
[1]
The picture is “St Peter is Walking on the Water” by Lluis Borrassa, 1411-13.
[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.
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