Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

“Study of an Apostle's Hands (Praying Hands),
Albrecht Dürer, c. 1508

 
Readings for Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary:[3]
 
Reading 1: 2 Corinthians 11:1-11
 
Brothers and sisters:
If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me!
Please put up with me.
For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God,
since I betrothed you to one husband
to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,
your thoughts may be corrupted
from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ.
For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached,
or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received
or a different gospel from the one you accepted,
you put up with it well enough.
For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these "superapostles."
Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge;
in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
 
Did I make a mistake when I humbled myself so that you might be exalted,
because I preached the Gospel of God to you without charge?
I plundered other churches by accepting from them
in order to minister to you.
And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone,
for the brothers who came from Macedonia
supplied my needs.
So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.
By the truth of Christ in me,
this boast of mine shall not be silenced
in the regions of Achaia.
And why?  Because I do not love you?
God knows I do!
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Commentary on 2 Cor 11:1-11
 
In the first part of this selection we hear St. Paul being somewhat ironic as he chastises the church in Corinth about listening to false prophets and those teaching an unorthodox version of the Gospel (in this instance it sounds as if there may be some heretical teachings on the nature of Christ).  He goes on to ask them if they reject his message because it was brought to them free of charge, and refers to his support coming from other Christian communities while he stayed in Corinth.
 
CCC: 2 Cor 11:2 505, 796
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 111:1b-2, 3-4, 7-8
 
R. (7a) Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
Majesty and glory are his work,
and his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
sure are all his precepts,
Reliable forever and ever,
wrought in truth and equity.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 111:1b-2, 3-4, 7-8
 
Psalm 111 is a hymn of thanksgiving.  In this selection we find the singer giving thanks for God’s guidance, and his works of creation and salvation.
 
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Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15
 
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
 
"This is how you are to pray:
 
'Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.'
 
"If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."
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Commentary on Mt 6:7-15
 
This Gospel passage from St. Matthew actually interrupts the pattern in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus is clarifying the spirit of the Law regarding almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In the presentation of the Lord’s Prayer, St. Matthew differs from the presentation by St. Luke (Luke 11; 1-4) in which the Lord was asked by the disciples how to pray. This passage begins by telling the disciples, “do not babble like the pagans.” This may also be critical of the Jewish tradition of presenting long lists of petitions to God for help. The idea is the same: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
 
“Here, talk ought to be as sparse as water dripping slowly into a deep well: the echo lasts longer than the sound because the drops fall at wide intervals. Words that really count, words that are 'stored up' eternally, are always the product of slow distillation.” [4]
 
The prayer in St. Matthew has seven petitions (compared to six in St. Luke). The first three are synonymous, asking that God’s ultimate reign at the eschaton be brought to fulfillment. The request for “daily bread” has a couple of possible meanings beyond the obvious. It may be related to the petition in Matthew 6: 31-33 (“So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'”) and it may also be referring to the Messianic banquet of the Eucharist. Using this interpretation, the fourth petition continues the intent of the first three.
 
The fifth petition, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” is, in spite of the denominational tradition, best translated as “debts.” In St. Luke’s version, the word used is “sins,” an easier word for non-Jewish readers. Regardless of the transliteration, the precondition for forgiveness given is that we forgive others.
 
“Lead us not into temptation” is likely not intended to mean our daily encounter with “evil” or the “evil one.” St. Matthew would agree with St. Paul, that God could easily avoid the evil of the world (1 Corinthians 10: 13). Rather the likely meaning would be that we not be led to a great test, that is, despair at the tribulations of the eschaton (the end times). Similarly the final petition, “deliver us from evil,” also would focus on the Christian hope of salvation rather than damnation.
 
CCC: Mt 6:7 2608, 2668, 2776; Mt 6:8 443, 2736; Mt 6:9-13 1969, 2759, 2759; Mt 6:9 268, 443; Mt 6:10 2632; Mt 6:11 1165, 2659; Mt 6:12 2845; Mt 6:14-16 2792; Mt 6:14-15 2608, 2841
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Reflection:
 
The Lord’s Prayer is likely the most used prayer of our faith.  It is used in nearly every celebration of the Church from the Mass to devotions such as the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary, and the Divine Mercy prayer.  It is prayed at meetings, at meal times, and at almost any occasion where communal prayer is offered.  It is ironic, then that such an important prayer can become mere babbling as St. Matthew put it in his Gospel.
 
We are all guilty of sprinting through the Lord’s Prayer.  There are many times when even the individual words are uttered either out loud or silently with such speed that the seven petitions we place before God are indistinguishable noise.  Even to ourselves.
 
Jesus warned about this in his opening remarks from the Gospel we heard today.  He told the disciples: “Do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”  Our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask him!  Yet we must recognize our need to offer him praise and honor.  Our uttered prayer is to remind us that we need his strength, his guidance, and his mercy to come to the place he has prepared for us.
 
We listen to those words of prayer as we recall our wish that we might receive the reward of eternal life, pledged in a covenant with God as Christ’s sacrifice sealed it with his blood.  We hear the deeper meaning of our request of “daily bread.”  It is not food for our table.  Rather it is our admittance to the eternal eucharistic banquet.  We pray to be forgiven, knowing that God has offered forgiveness at a great price paid by our Savior, and we recall that before we might accept God’s forgiveness, we must also forgive.
 
Finally, we beg God to keep us courageous in the face of the trials we will surely face.  As we ask to be freed from temptation, we recognize it is temptation to fall into despair, to forget we are precious in the eyes of the Lord.  That same temptation was placed before our Lord as he prayed in the garden the night he was betrayed.  And we conclude with the great hope that our merciful Father will welcome us at last to his Heavenly Kingdom, rescuing us from the eternal fall.
 
When next we pray this great prayer left to us by Jesus, let us hear the words we pray and let our spirit offer the praise God desires of his adopted children.
 
Pax
 

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[1] The picture today is “Study of an Apostle's Hands (Praying Hands), Albrecht Dürer, c. 1508.
[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] Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume I. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, © 1996 p. 251.