Additional Information about the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary[1]
Readings for Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time[2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Revelations 10:8-11
Then the voice that I (John) had heard from heaven
spoke to me again and said:
“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, “Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rev 10:8-11
The small scroll in this passage, according to scripture scholars, predicts the final victory of God’s heavenly host in the battle between good and evil to come. That is the reason it tastes like honey. There will be many who suffer and die in this struggle which is why it sours in the belly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm:[4] Psalm 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
R. (103a) How sweet to my taste is your promise!
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
Out of this very long (176 verses) hymn of praise and thanksgiving we are focused onto the delight the psalmist takes in following God’s law and will. The taste of honey is again provided in verse 103: “…How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” There is no corresponding sourness mentioned in this song.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 19:45-48
Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 19:45-48
Jesus enters Jerusalem and immediately takes charge of the temple, there displaying his power and zeal for “His Father’s House.” He drives out those selling animals and birds for sacrifice and the money changers. The clear implication here is money cannot buy God’s favor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
We are reminded of the story of the Princess Bride today. For those not familiar with the story; the princess falls in love with a farm boy who disappears for five years and is presumed dead. The princess is about to marry a local prince, who has evil intentions, when her “true love” shows up, now a pirate captain, and through improbable feats and with the help of some equally improbable friends, defeats the evil prince and the two live happily ever after. The story has a fairly standard sequence of events – the hero or heroin enamor themselves to the reader; are placed in peril, and, in the end are victorious. Stories like these are fun to read because good defeats evil and there is a happy ending.
While the story of Jesus has a similar feel and flow the story is much more complex and we become a part of it. In other words, unlike a nice fiction story we can put down when the plot gets too intense, we find ourselves living our part of the story and the plot has consequences for us.
We see the symbolism of this in St. John’s Revelations. The scroll, symbol of truth, prophecy, and knowledge is given to St. John to be consumed, symbol of understanding and complete acceptance (think also about the Eucharist for us in this context). It tastes sweet in the mouth because the words of love and forgiveness are sweet to the soul. The eternal life promised is the happy ending and we rejoice in that knowledge, how sweet it tastes.
But it sours in the belly. The path to salvation in this life is not simple. For many, that journey seems to be one test of faith after another. It has always been so; even for Jesus own Blessed Mother Mary.
We recall her self dedication to God’s will on this feast day. Think about her life; the joy of being chosen to carry the Savior, the sorrow foretold by Simeon, her pride at the wedding feast at Cana, her anguish as her Son was taken from the Cross, his lifeless body laid in her arms.
How sweet were the times of his life, yet she must have seen events like the one described by St. Luke. Jesus stormed into the Temple and challenged the powers of the Sanhedrin (who no doubt got a piece of the action). He drove out the money changes and merchants who sold sacrificial animals. She must have thought, even if it is no where recorded, “Pease, Son, can’t you see they will hate you for this? Don’t you see they will fear your power?”
As the nails were pounded in, even then she looked for God’s intercession, knowing it would not come. Sour was that sound in her ears; each beat an echo of sin he was sent to bear on our behalf.
For ourselves too, along with our brothers and sisters in the Lord the news of salvation is sweet on our lips. But the difficulty of waking that path in faith often causes us to feel that sourness as the reality of the consequences are driven home. Today we pray that we may rejoice in the sweetness that is the knowledge of our eventual salvation and our faith will overcome the sourness of sin and evil that we must pass through to achieve that final destination.
Pax
[1] The picture used today is “The Presentation of Mary” by Denys Calvaert, 1590s
[2] ALTRE
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[4] Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved
Readings for Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time[2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Revelations 10:8-11
Then the voice that I (John) had heard from heaven
spoke to me again and said:
“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, “Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rev 10:8-11
The small scroll in this passage, according to scripture scholars, predicts the final victory of God’s heavenly host in the battle between good and evil to come. That is the reason it tastes like honey. There will be many who suffer and die in this struggle which is why it sours in the belly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm:[4] Psalm 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
R. (103a) How sweet to my taste is your promise!
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
Out of this very long (176 verses) hymn of praise and thanksgiving we are focused onto the delight the psalmist takes in following God’s law and will. The taste of honey is again provided in verse 103: “…How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” There is no corresponding sourness mentioned in this song.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 19:45-48
Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 19:45-48
Jesus enters Jerusalem and immediately takes charge of the temple, there displaying his power and zeal for “His Father’s House.” He drives out those selling animals and birds for sacrifice and the money changers. The clear implication here is money cannot buy God’s favor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
We are reminded of the story of the Princess Bride today. For those not familiar with the story; the princess falls in love with a farm boy who disappears for five years and is presumed dead. The princess is about to marry a local prince, who has evil intentions, when her “true love” shows up, now a pirate captain, and through improbable feats and with the help of some equally improbable friends, defeats the evil prince and the two live happily ever after. The story has a fairly standard sequence of events – the hero or heroin enamor themselves to the reader; are placed in peril, and, in the end are victorious. Stories like these are fun to read because good defeats evil and there is a happy ending.
While the story of Jesus has a similar feel and flow the story is much more complex and we become a part of it. In other words, unlike a nice fiction story we can put down when the plot gets too intense, we find ourselves living our part of the story and the plot has consequences for us.
We see the symbolism of this in St. John’s Revelations. The scroll, symbol of truth, prophecy, and knowledge is given to St. John to be consumed, symbol of understanding and complete acceptance (think also about the Eucharist for us in this context). It tastes sweet in the mouth because the words of love and forgiveness are sweet to the soul. The eternal life promised is the happy ending and we rejoice in that knowledge, how sweet it tastes.
But it sours in the belly. The path to salvation in this life is not simple. For many, that journey seems to be one test of faith after another. It has always been so; even for Jesus own Blessed Mother Mary.
We recall her self dedication to God’s will on this feast day. Think about her life; the joy of being chosen to carry the Savior, the sorrow foretold by Simeon, her pride at the wedding feast at Cana, her anguish as her Son was taken from the Cross, his lifeless body laid in her arms.
How sweet were the times of his life, yet she must have seen events like the one described by St. Luke. Jesus stormed into the Temple and challenged the powers of the Sanhedrin (who no doubt got a piece of the action). He drove out the money changes and merchants who sold sacrificial animals. She must have thought, even if it is no where recorded, “Pease, Son, can’t you see they will hate you for this? Don’t you see they will fear your power?”
As the nails were pounded in, even then she looked for God’s intercession, knowing it would not come. Sour was that sound in her ears; each beat an echo of sin he was sent to bear on our behalf.
For ourselves too, along with our brothers and sisters in the Lord the news of salvation is sweet on our lips. But the difficulty of waking that path in faith often causes us to feel that sourness as the reality of the consequences are driven home. Today we pray that we may rejoice in the sweetness that is the knowledge of our eventual salvation and our faith will overcome the sourness of sin and evil that we must pass through to achieve that final destination.
Pax
[1] The picture used today is “The Presentation of Mary” by Denys Calvaert, 1590s
[2] ALTRE
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[4] Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved
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