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“The Vocation of St. Aloysius Gonzaga”
by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, c. 1650 |
Readings for Saturday of the
Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Brothers and sisters:
I must boast; not that it is profitable,
but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago
(whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows),
was caught up to the third heaven.
And I know that this man
(whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows)
was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things,
which no one may utter.
About this man I will boast,
but about myself I will not boast, except about my weaknesses.
Although if I should wish to boast, I would not be foolish,
for I would be telling the truth.
But I refrain, so that no one may think more of me
than what he sees in me or hears from me
because of the abundance of the revelations.
Therefore, that I might not become too elated,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan,
to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,
but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is made perfect in weakness.”
I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses,
in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints,
for the sake of Christ;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.
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Commentary on 2 Cor
12:1-10
As part of his
defense of his own apostolate, St. Paul describes, in rather convoluted terms,
an out-of-body experience (when he says “a man in Christ” he is referring to
himself) where he was taken to heaven (the “third heaven” is the place
where God dwells –the first is earth, the second the stars), in which he was
given “ineffable things,” privileged information that could not be
repeated. Rather than helping him, these revelations brought persecution: “a
thorn in the flesh.” The apostle uses the Christ-like response to physical
and rhetorical challenges by saying that through his weakness and humility he
is given the power of the Holy Spirit to carry on the Lord’s work.
CCC: 2 Cor 12:9 268, 273, 1508
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
R. (9a) Taste and see the
goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers
them.
Taste and see how good the Lord is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for nought is lacking to those who fear him.
The great grow poor and hungry;
but those who seek the Lord want for no
good thing.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Come, children, hear me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Which of you desires life,
and takes delight in prosperous days?
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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Commentary on Ps
34:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Psalm 34 is a song of thanksgiving. The psalmist sings of God’s salvation and how
he raises up the lowly (earlier references indicate the singer has suffered – v.
5, 7).
It becomes an invitation to the people to become instruments of God.
CCC: Ps 34:8 336
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Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus said to his disciples:
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
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Commentary on Mt 6:24-34
Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount being
very clear about what must be placed first in the life of his disciples. Here
the word mammon is used, an Aramaic word meaning wealth. The
Lord does not deny that people need the physical things of the world (i.e.
food, clothing, and water), but tells them that, if they have faith in God and
pursue the things of God’s kingdom, the heavenly Father will provide for them.
He goes further to say that, if they are constantly focused on material goods,
they will not extend their lives even a little.
“This passage, like the preceding one, stresses the importance of
undistracted, absolute discipleship. The key to avoiding
anxiety [achieving peace] is to make the kingdom one’s priority (v
33). The disciples have a “heavenly Father” who knows of their ongoing needs
and who will supply them.” [4]
CCC: Mt 6:24 2113, 2424, 2729, 2821, 2848; Mt 6:25-34 2547, 2830;
Mt 6:25 2608; Mt
6:26-34 322; Mt
6:26 2416; Mt
6:31-33 305; Mt
6:32 270; Mt
6:33 1942, 2604, 2608, 2632; Mt 6:34 2659, 2836
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Reflection:
Today
we return to the subject of what we must focus on in our lives. The key instruction in Scripture comes in the
last paragraph of the Gospel “But
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” If we do this, we are told, then all our
physical needs will be attended to by God and more even than that.
Let’s
think about that for a minute. It is
important that we try to capture an image of what this must be like in its
absolute application. Let us suppose
that our focus in all that we do is solely for God’s glory. Suppose we did not
worry about getting paid so we could pay the mortgage, put food on the table,
pay the utilities, make the car payment, oh, and save money (or spend it) so
our children could go to college. If we
concerned ourselves only with that one thing, how well would we accomplish that
which God has given us gifts to accomplish?
If whatever we do, we did only for God’s glory; if we thought about it
in those terms and were driven to excellence by our insurmountable love for
God; then our performance would be nothing short of incredible.
Guess
what? If our performance of tasks, again
using God’s gifts which we have discerned, is incredible, then those who profit
from those gifts will be grateful. Their
gratitude will extend itself to us and, through the Father’s influence, to the
things he knows we need. Those blessing
will come to us.
Our
difficulty, of course, is twofold.
First, it is easy to say that the daily work we do is done ONLY for
God’s glory. We might think it and pray
it the first thing in the morning as we go off to the office, factory, store or
school. But once there, it becomes
labor, hard work, and our focus and motivation becomes the task for the sake of
the task or for how much compensation we will see from our employer. If these things were done with constant
prayer and the love of God before us, would not our whole outlook change? We would be constantly cheerful; concerned
only with pleasing the Father and the gifts he has given us would bear fruit
like never before.
The
second problem is if something goes wrong in our lives and financial pressures
begin to mount, our focus on doing God’s will becomes distracted to getting
more money (mammon). Once off track it’s
hard to get back on.
Today
we are reminded once more that we must keep the Lord squarely in front of us as
we strive to make our lives pleasing to Him.
Let us redouble our efforts to do so.
Pax
[1]
The picture used today is “The Vocation of St. Aloysius Gonzaga” by Giovanni
Francesco Barbieri, c. 1650.
[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]
Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13, vol. 33A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas:
Word, Incorporated, 1993), 166.
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