Alternate Readings for the Common of Virgins
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[4]
Reading 1: Exodus 2:1-15a
A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
who conceived and bore a son.
Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.
When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket,
daubed it with bitumen and pitch,
and putting the child in it,
placed it among the reeds on the river bank.
His sister stationed herself at a distance
to find out what would happen to him.
Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe,
while her maids walked along the river bank.
Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.
On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying!
She was moved with pity for him and said,
"It is one of the Hebrews' children."
Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter,
"Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women
to nurse the child for you?"
"Yes, do so," she answered.
So the maiden went and called the child's own mother.
Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
"Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you."
The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.
When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,
who adopted him as her son and called him Moses;
for she said, "I drew him out of the water."
On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,
when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor,
he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.
Looking about and seeing no one,
he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!
So he asked the culprit,
"Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?"
But the culprit replied,
"Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us?
Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?"
Then Moses became afraid and thought,
"The affair must certainly be known."
Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put Moses to death.
But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian.
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Commentary on Ex 2:1-15a
In response to the Egyptians killing of all new born male babies, Moses mother places him in a basket and hides him in the river. There discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh, he is ultimately adopted by her. The passage compresses the timeline of his story moving from infancy to saying simply “On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,,,” It is clear that the adult Moses knows of his birth right as he sides with the Hebrews against the Egyptians. We leave him hiding from Pharaoh in Midian.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34
R. (see 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
I am sunk in the abysmal swamp
where there is no foothold;
I have reached the watery depths;
the flood overwhelms me.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
But I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me;
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
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Commentary on Ps 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34
Psalm 69 is an individual lament. The psalmist sings of great trials and perils, describing the singer’s dire situation. Faith and hope in the Lord, says the song, sustains those in need.
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Gospel: Matthew 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."
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Commentary on Mt 11:20-24
This passage follows the parable of the “Children in the Marketplace” in which the Jesus accuses those who have heard the words of both John the Baptist and himself of not being willing to hear that they must turn away from sin and repent.
In this passage he goes further chastising the towns in which he has performed great signs. As in the parable that proceeded it, this selection speaks of the punishment reserved for those who refuse to hear the word he has spoken and continue to ignore the law and prophets. Their fate, he tells them will be worse than that of Sodom.
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Reflection:
Scripture accelerates the development of faith and understanding of those who have sought to do God’s will over the millennia. In the first reading from Exodus we see God’s plan for Moses unfold. We hear of his birth and, with no mention of his upbringing by Pharaoh’s daughter we find him outraged at the treatment of his kinsmen (he knew his heritage and birth right). In response to the treatment of this member of his extended family he kills the Egyptian.
Granted this is a historical account of God’s revelation stated in human terms. Still, are we surprised that there is not moral outrage expressed at one person killing another? Recall – the Law of Moses (see the irony) has not yet been handed on to Israel. Killing had not yet been defined as sin (although the implication is present in the account of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:8-13)). As St. Paul points out – through the Law of Moses sin enters the world (Romans 5:13ff). Not because the Law was sinful but because sin was defined by the law.
We jump ahead now, two thousand years, to the time of Jesus. With the Law now firmly in place and sins against God clearly defined, Jesus himself has made it clear that in God’s eyes (His eyes) the very thought of violence against one’s brother of sister is sinful.
This compression in understanding God, revealed first through the Law and the Prophets and then completed in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets gives us the foundation for our own moral center. Our actions are not judged just upon the heart of the Law that Moses brought - the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. Our justification comes from following the Law fulfilled in Christ. It is this measure by which we will be judged and this measure to which we must apply all our actions. And the Gospel lets us know that failure to learn this lesson will have consequences.
Today we rededicate ourselves to truly internalizing God’s Law fulfilled in Jesus. We pray that God will give us the strength and discipline to follow that law and bring him Glory.
Pax
[1] Outside the Americas Saint Camillus of Lellis is memorialized on this date
[2] ALTRE
[3] The picture is ” Finding of Moses” by Orazio Gentileschi, 1630-33
[4] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 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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