Readings for Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
St. Paul concludes this section of his First Letter to the Corinthians on Christian Wisdom with an exhortation to the community not to pass judgment on their leaders. The words St. Paul uses to describe the roles are, in the first instance “servants of Christ” Hypēretēs- a word that designated rowers on the lowest rank of a galley later coming to mean assistant or helper. The word “Stewards” (or managers) was oikonomos a name given to servants put in charge of their master’s property. The sense of this selection is even the evangelist cannot judge his contributions to the Kingdom of God – this can only be done by the Lord at the Parousia.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Psalm 37 continues the plea to be faithful to God and remain steadfast in the time of adversity. The psalmist adds a call for repentance, a return to righteousness. Failure to do so brings death.
Gospel: Luke 5:33-39
In this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees we see the liberal use of metaphors to describe a new relationship and a new covenant and how they relate to the old. The bridal metaphor clearly establishes a different relationship between God and man than that expressed in the Hebrew tradition. God and man are in a love relationship as opposed to God being superior to man and man subservient to God.
The Lord uses the Metaphors of the new and old cloth and the new and old wine skins to illustrate that this Gospel message cannot be grafted on to Mosaic Law but it becomes something entirely new and attempting to hold both views will destroy both.
Reflection:
Sometimes the bar we set for ourselves is so high that we doom ourselves to failure from the onset. If we attempt to judge our behavior using the standards set by Jesus, we are always going to come up short – only Christ was perfect. That does not mean we should not try. It simply means that we should not judge ourselves harshly.
St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians speaks to that community telling them to refrain from passing judgment on their leaders (himself included) saying that even he cannot judge himself. Only God, St. Paul tells us, will judge and that judgment will come at the end time when all are judged.
We couple this exhortation about judgment of others and ourselves with Jesus teaching from St. Luke’s Gospel and something important becomes clear. Jesus tells the Pharisees that he has come to bring something new. He does not come to destroy Mosaic Law but to bring a new understanding to how it must be applied. He changes the way God the Father is to be understood – as a loving parent who hopes for happiness for his children not as a master of servants.
That change in perception means that we receive forgiveness from God rather than punishment when we fail. That should make us very happy but for one fact at the heart of this revelation
– In order to accept God’s forgiveness we must first forgive ourselves!
If God forgives us when we are contrite; when we recognize we have sinned and ask for forgiveness, who are we to judge ourselves guilty? Yet we do it. We harbor that guilt and if we allow it to fester it will deprive us of God’s peace. Ironically self-condemnation files in the face of Christ’s sacrifice – he died so we would know God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Paul’s rather subtle lesson exposes a great weakness that impacts the most faithful followers of the Lord. Once again the irony is that the more developed a person’s sense of spirituality, the more prone they are to judge themselves; the standard for following Christ is more rigidly applied.
Today our prayer is; first one of thanks to God for his mercy and love. His Son gives us the new wine that makes us one with him and opens the gates of the heavenly kingdom. It is also our most fervent prayer that we offer our failures to God completely – in that way we can forgive ourselves and in doing so accept God’s forgiveness and love.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used today is “Return of the Prodigal Son” by Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt, c. 1662
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
St. Paul concludes this section of his First Letter to the Corinthians on Christian Wisdom with an exhortation to the community not to pass judgment on their leaders. The words St. Paul uses to describe the roles are, in the first instance “servants of Christ” Hypēretēs- a word that designated rowers on the lowest rank of a galley later coming to mean assistant or helper. The word “Stewards” (or managers) was oikonomos a name given to servants put in charge of their master’s property. The sense of this selection is even the evangelist cannot judge his contributions to the Kingdom of God – this can only be done by the Lord at the Parousia.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Psalm 37 continues the plea to be faithful to God and remain steadfast in the time of adversity. The psalmist adds a call for repentance, a return to righteousness. Failure to do so brings death.
Gospel: Luke 5:33-39
In this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees we see the liberal use of metaphors to describe a new relationship and a new covenant and how they relate to the old. The bridal metaphor clearly establishes a different relationship between God and man than that expressed in the Hebrew tradition. God and man are in a love relationship as opposed to God being superior to man and man subservient to God.
The Lord uses the Metaphors of the new and old cloth and the new and old wine skins to illustrate that this Gospel message cannot be grafted on to Mosaic Law but it becomes something entirely new and attempting to hold both views will destroy both.
Reflection:
Sometimes the bar we set for ourselves is so high that we doom ourselves to failure from the onset. If we attempt to judge our behavior using the standards set by Jesus, we are always going to come up short – only Christ was perfect. That does not mean we should not try. It simply means that we should not judge ourselves harshly.
St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians speaks to that community telling them to refrain from passing judgment on their leaders (himself included) saying that even he cannot judge himself. Only God, St. Paul tells us, will judge and that judgment will come at the end time when all are judged.
We couple this exhortation about judgment of others and ourselves with Jesus teaching from St. Luke’s Gospel and something important becomes clear. Jesus tells the Pharisees that he has come to bring something new. He does not come to destroy Mosaic Law but to bring a new understanding to how it must be applied. He changes the way God the Father is to be understood – as a loving parent who hopes for happiness for his children not as a master of servants.
That change in perception means that we receive forgiveness from God rather than punishment when we fail. That should make us very happy but for one fact at the heart of this revelation
– In order to accept God’s forgiveness we must first forgive ourselves!
If God forgives us when we are contrite; when we recognize we have sinned and ask for forgiveness, who are we to judge ourselves guilty? Yet we do it. We harbor that guilt and if we allow it to fester it will deprive us of God’s peace. Ironically self-condemnation files in the face of Christ’s sacrifice – he died so we would know God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Paul’s rather subtle lesson exposes a great weakness that impacts the most faithful followers of the Lord. Once again the irony is that the more developed a person’s sense of spirituality, the more prone they are to judge themselves; the standard for following Christ is more rigidly applied.
Today our prayer is; first one of thanks to God for his mercy and love. His Son gives us the new wine that makes us one with him and opens the gates of the heavenly kingdom. It is also our most fervent prayer that we offer our failures to God completely – in that way we can forgive ourselves and in doing so accept God’s forgiveness and love.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used today is “Return of the Prodigal Son” by Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt, c. 1662
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