Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

“The Orphanage”
by Jan de Bray, 1663

 
Readings for Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary: [3]
 
Reading 1: Romans 8:12-17
 
Brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
 
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
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Commentary on Rom 8:12-17
 
The verse immediately preceding this short excerpt from Romans is helpful in providing context. v.11: “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Most scholars interpret v.11-12 as reinforcing the fact that Christians, adopted by God in baptism, live in God's grace.  However, they are not spared the death of the body (flesh) as a consequence of original sin.
 
St. Paul continues his discourse about the importance of making life in the spirit a priority as opposed to the life of the “un-spiritual.” He reminds his Christian audience that, when they became Christians, they were not made slaves, but adopted as children of God. They are able, he tells them, to call God the Heavenly Father, “Abba,” the familial term used by Jesus, emphasizing that they are co-heirs with Christ whose sufferings and glory they share.
 
CCC: Rom 8:9 693; Rom 8:11 632, 658, 693, 695, 989, 990; Rom 8:14-17 1996; Rom 8:14 259, 693, 1831, 2543; Rom 8:15 257, 693, 1303, 1972, 2777; Rom 8:16 2639; Rom 8:17 1265, 1460, 1831
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
 
R. (21a) Our God is the God of salvation.
 
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
 
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
 
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
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Commentary on Ps 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
 
This song of thanksgiving praises the Lord for his salvation of his children with the theme of adoption. It is an idea that would later be personified in Christ (Romans 8:12-17). It specifically references God assuming the fatherly role with widows and orphans (the father of orphans and the defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling). His faithful followers, the singer calls, enjoy his strength, even his power over death.
 
CCC: Ps 68:6 238
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Gospel: Luke 13:10-17
 
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
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Commentary on Lk 13:10-17
 
The story of the cure of the crippled woman is parallel to the story of Jesus curing the man with dropsy on the Sabbath (see Luke 14:1-6). He is challenged by the local Jewish leadership for doing “work” on God’s holy day (cf. Exodus 20:8; 31:14 Leviticus 19:3-30). As before, he uses the need to tend to the necessities of life on the Sabbath as parallel to his need to cure the woman. He reinterprets the law establishing the need to please God through acts of mercy and kindness (cf. Hosea 6:6; James 2:13).
 
“Luke rounds off the account schematically by suggesting that Jesus puts all his opponents to shame (of course most of them would not even have been present!). By echoing the language of the Greek text of Isaiah 45:16, he suggests that Scripture is being fulfilled. Similarly, the response of the crowd strays outside the bounds of the actual episode. The use of “glorious [splendid] things” may be a deliberate echo of the same term in the Greek version of Exodus 34:10.” [4]
 
CCC: Lk 13:15-16 582
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Reflection:
 
We are forced to look at what it means to be “adopted” by God.  St. Paul makes it clear that those who are baptized into Jesus are adopted as sons and daughters of God.  In an earlier era, that adoption was extended only to the Hebrews as is made clear in both the Psalm and the Gospel, as Jesus refers to the woman he cures specifically as “This daughter of Abraham.” 
 
Abstractly, before our adoption as natural beings, we were slaves of the flesh, thinking only in terms of what gratified the flesh.  When one takes that view, the stark reality of death becomes a finite ending.  The body, the flesh, will die, and all the effort that went into making the flesh happy or strong will have ended with it.  Yet, we have chosen to accept adoption by Jesus, and in doing so our main concern must now be with our soul or spirit.  It is the spirit that animates the flesh and to a great degree controls its appetites.
 
Becoming adopted children of God carries with it both wealth and obligation.  An orphan adopted by a titled family inherits the title of that family. They also inherit the responsibility that goes along with the title. It is the same for those who are adopted by God. We inherit the responsibility that goes along with the title “Christian.”  If the adopted child of a titled family does not live up to their obligations, the family may “disown” that child, making them ineligible to inherit the wealth of the adopting family.  Here is where the analogy breaks down a bit since our adoptive Father will never disown us.  His hand is always outstretched.  It is we who disown him through sin. We separate ourselves from his love by our own choice. We forfeit our inheritance, squander it like the “Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:11-32), in favor of death in the flesh.
 
Today we pray that we may always be aware of our adoption as children of God and co-heirs to his kingdom.  May we conduct ourselves as is befitting one called a child of God and bring honor to his name in so doing.
 
Pax

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[1] The picture is “The Orphanage” by Jan de Bray, 1663.
[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] John Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, vol. 35B, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 725.