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| “St. Vincent de Paul” Artist and Date are UNKNOWN. |
Commentary:
Reading 1: Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Commentary on Eccl 1:2-11
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17bc
R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Commentary on Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17bc
The psalm in its entirety is a communal lament. The strophes in this selection reflect on the mortality of humanity, and the brevity of human life. (It is also an example of the human understanding that God’s immortal view of time is not like ours.) The sense of human mortality and the questioning nature of the strophes echo the thoughts of Qoheleth (Solomon) in Ecclesiastes 1:2-11.
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Gospel: Luke 9:7-9
Commentary on Lk 9:7-9
This passage from St. Luke’s Gospel begins a section that assembles incidents from the life of the Lord. In this introduction, King Herod asks the question, “Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” The proposed identities of Jesus coincide directly with the later report of the disciples to Jesus in Luke 9:18-19. Confusion about Jesus’ identity will be clarified in the subsequent passages as his divinity is revealed.
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Reflection:
In our constant struggle to understand God’s will for us, we often feel the desperate emotion expressed in the first readings from Ecclesiastes: “Even the thing of which we say, ‘See, this is new!’ has already existed in the ages that preceded us.” We see the events unfold in the Gospel and say to ourselves, “I see what this means.” Or, “This must apply to my life this way.” Yet we realize later, especially when reading works of the Patristic Fathers, that our revelation was nothing new, and the question we had answered for ourselves had been answered more thoroughly thousands of years before.
The great advantage we have over poor Qoheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes, is that Jesus came to reveal more perfectly God’s intent. While the ultimate plan of God remains unknowable, our intended role in that plan is revealed, in part, by the way Jesus lived his human life, and commanded his disciples to act. In turn, those Apostles took what Jesus gave, recorded it in sacred scripture, and passed it on through people of deep faith, so that we might understand more clearly our own role in God’s eternal plan.
Is that role perfectly clear? In all but extraordinary cases, the answer is no. Our role in God’s plan, the part he intends for us to play, is revealed only slowly, and sometimes only in retrospect. For our part, we are cast in a role something like Herod in the Gospel from Luke today. We want to understand who Jesus is (in our lives), and how we need to apply what he asks of us. Unlike Herod, who is driven by intense guilt over having ordered the death of St. John the Baptist in a lust-filled moment, we seek Christ knowing his divine nature, with faith in his infinite love and mercy.
We pledge this day to continue to seek what Jesus calls us to be. Understanding our great flaws and weakness, we nonetheless apply ourselves to discipleship as best we can. We have faith that, in the final judgment, we will be shown the love and mercy we deserve by the one who came so those flaws and weaknesses might be washed away, and we will enjoy the promise our Savior came to make.
Pax
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