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“St. Charles Lwanga and His Followers”
by Albert Wider, 1962 |
Readings for Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 2 Peter 1:2-7
Beloved:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance
through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has bestowed on us
everything that makes for life and devotion,
through the knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and power.
Through these, he has bestowed on us
the precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature,
after escaping from the corruption that is in the world
because of evil desire. For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
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Commentary on 2 Pt 1:2-7
This is the brief introduction to the Second Letter of Peter, similar in form and language to the introductions from Jude and the First Letter of Peter. The book was admitted to the canon of the New Testament late because it is thought to have been written under a pseudonym by someone other than the apostle Peter. This first section set the stage for the principal thrust of the letter which is Christian knowledge, which should arm them against false teachers, specifically those who doubted that there would be a “second coming” of Christ.
The author points out that knowledge is the key to understanding and realizing the gift of the divine promises of Christ. He then goes on to present a gradation of qualities beginning with faith that leads at last to Christian love, the ultimate expression of Christ’s gift in the world.
“The first section (vv 3–4) establishes the basis for Christian living, in what God in Christ has done for us. By the divine power evident in Christ’s life, death and resurrection he has called men and women to be Christians, and when they come to knowledge of Christ in Christian conversion they also receive through that knowledge the grace of Christ which will enable them to live a life of obedience to God.” [4]
CCC: 2 Pt 1:3-4 1996; 2 Pt 1:4 460, 1129, 1265, 1692, 1721, 1812
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 91:1-2, 14-15b, 15c-16
R. (see 2b) In you, my God, I place my trust.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
Say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he
acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
I will deliver him and glorify him;
with length of days I will gratify him
and will show him my salvation.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
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Commentary on Ps 91:1-2, 14-15b, 15c-16
The hymn of thanksgiving that is Psalm 91 gives praise to God for the salvation of his people. He saves those who believe in him from distress and fear.
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Gospel: Mark 12:1-12
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes,
and the elders in parables.
“A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.
At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants
to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
But they seized him, beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent them another servant.
And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
He sent yet another whom they killed.
So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
He had one other to send, a beloved son.
He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
So they seized him and killed him,
and threw him out of the vineyard.
What then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come, put the tenants to death,
and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this Scripture passage:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?”
They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd,
for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them.
So they left him and went away.
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Commentary on Mk 12:1-12
In the first part of the Gospel, we hear the Parable of the Vineyard. Since this story is directed to the chief priests and scribes, we understand that the vineyard represents the kingdom of God and the tenants are the Sanhedrin. They should have been working on behalf of God, but instead they misused their power and disregarded the prophets, killing some, beating others. And when the son of the owner comes and is killed, Jesus prophesies his own death.
The final section of the reading uses the image found in Psalm 118; 23-24, “the stone rejected.” Jesus uses this Scripture quote to drive home his point: that the Sanhedrin had completely missed God’s intent, and that the one they rejected, Jesus himself, the Messiah, was to be the cornerstone of the New Jerusalem, God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven.
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Reflection:
There is an ongoing struggle, even within our Christian ranks, to discover how best to follow Jesus’ teachings. Some argue that “I don’t need a church. I am a spiritual person and I read the Bible. I am a good person.” We would not argue with the last statement. There are many people who are good; look at Gandhi who was a very good person. An individual, doing their best to follow their impulses to do “good,” is not what Christianity is about. It is the sum of its members responding together to challenge the status quo and transform the world, driven by their faith and belief that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God, and it is his example Christians follow.
Christ’s mission was not to introduce an individual form of self-improvement. He came so that salvation might be given to those who could find the strength to follow him. An individual doing “good” things, reading the bible, praying to God, has found a selfish expression of faith that will make them feel good, and not require any effort to change, either what they do (they have excluded from their circle anyone who would challenge them), or how they interpret “good” from what they read. That individual might rationalize excellent reasons for rejecting “organized religion.” Most commonly heard are things like: “I don’t need them to know what’s right or how to pray,” or “They are all a bunch of hypocrites.” It is like a soldier saying: “I know that our side is right in going to war, but I’ll fight when the enemies are at my front door,” or “Soldiers are supposed to be brave; the ones I met were all scared.”
The expression of faith lived in the world is something that Christ calls us to. It is difficult to do what he asks, and if we find ourselves comfortable in the pew, content with the faith, we probably need to fire ourselves up. The Second Letter of Peter pushes us hard in that direction, and the Gospel reminds us that when we push as he wants us to, others will almost certainly push back (“So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.”).
Our prayer today is that we will not be complacent in the faith we share; that we will take that faith boldly into the world and demonstrate the love Christ calls us to share as our badge of Christianity.
Pax
[1] The picture used is “St. Charles Lwanga and His Followers” by Albert Wider, 1962.
[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 re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Richard J. Bauckham, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1983), 192.
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