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“St Michael Vanquishing the Devil”
by Bonifacio Veronese, c. 1530 |
Readings for Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me,
and led me out in the Spirit of the Lord
and set me in the center of the plain,
which was now filled with bones.
He made me walk among the bones in every direction
so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!
He asked me:
Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, “Lord God, you alone know that.”
Then he said to me:
Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:
Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,
cover you with skin, and put spirit in you
so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord.
I prophesied as I had been told,
and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;
it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the Lord said to me:
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God:
From the four winds come, O spirit,
and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.
I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;
they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.
Then he said to me:
Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They have been saying,
“Our bones are dried up,
our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”
Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.
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Commentary on Ez 37:1-14
The prophet is in Babylon and has the mystical experience of being led into the desert among bones (possibly of those who died in battle). Rather than speaking of “the resurrection” he is speaking of the restoration of Israel. His prophesying is intended to put a new spirit into the exiles, that they might have hope in the Lord. From the perspective of the Christian, the reference is to the resurrection promised by Christ, and the spirit breathed into the flesh is seen as the gift of the Holy Spirit.
CCC: Ez 37:1-14 715; Ez 37:10 703
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say,
those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe
And gathered from the lands,
from the east and the west, from the north and the south.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They went astray in the desert wilderness;
the way to an inhabited city they did not find.
Hungry and thirsty,
their life was wasting away within them.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They cried to the Lord in their distress;
from their straits he rescued them.
And he led them by a direct way
to reach an inhabited city.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy
and his wondrous deeds to the children of men,
Because he satisfied the longing soul
and filled the hungry soul with good things.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
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Commentary on Ps 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 107 is song of praise, “inviting those who have been rescued by God to give praise. Four archetypal divine rescues are described, each ending in thanksgiving: from the sterile desert.” [4] Those who have found themselves in peril have been rescued by the Lord's bounty. All of their needs are provided for, both spiritual and natural.
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Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
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Commentary on Mt 22:34-40
The story of Jesus delivering the Great Commandment is the fourth of the “Controversy Stories” in St. Matthew’s Gospel (stories in which Jesus argues with the Jewish leadership). Jesus has just refuted those Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection (v. 23-33) and now is challenged by the Pharisees. The question posed by the “scholar of the law” (probably a scribe; see also Luke 10:25-28) “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” is asked in a rabbinical sense, meaning which of the 613 distinct statutes was considered greatest. Within this body of law, 248 of these precepts were positive and 365 were prohibitions. In addition these precepts were further divided into “light” and “heavy.” This was a fairly typical exchange for a rabbinical debate.
In answering, Jesus quotes two texts of the law that now form the foundation for a new morality in the Gospel. He first quotes Deuteronomy6:5 “Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This text forms part of the Shema, the Jewish profession of faith. This first quote would not be surprising. What makes this exchange novel and important is that Jesus adds the quote from Leviticus 19:18b “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This juxtaposition of quotes makes them equally “heavy” and there is no parallel In Jewish literature.
CCC: Mat 22:23-34 575; Mat 22:34-36 581; Mat 22:36 2055; Mat 22:37-40 2055; Mat 22:37 2083; Mat 22:40 1824
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Reflection:
The connection between faith and action (“works” in the old terminology), described by Christ as he lays out the Great Commandment, strikes at the heart of our daily battle to live the faith we profess. Saints of the distant past have described this human duality as a battle between what the indwelling Holy Spirit directs us toward, and what our natural or animal instincts tell us to do.
This duality is often represented in the media as having a devil sitting on one shoulder, and an angel on the other, each whispering conflicting instructions to the subject. In reality, these two natures battle in a much more subtle way. Our spiritual self might say, when encountering a person in need: “We should stop and help this person.” But on the other side, our natural instincts are saying: “But if we do that we may be delayed, or we may be discomforted, or we may be placing ourselves in danger!” That natural self-will rationalizes and tries to compartmentalize our actions.
In most people, there is a healthy give and take between these conflicting impulses. And when the natural side wins, and we fail to live as if we loved God, we feel guilt and the pain associated with it. There are some, however, who seem to be able to completely turn off one side or the other for periods of time. It is in these individuals we see the contrast between the two impulses most strikingly. We see them in the priest who abuses children, and we see it in the calm and pious person who one day commits terrible violence against another person. One of the most striking recent examples of this flawed spirituality was Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, an order that has done tremendous good in the world, yet he was found to have committed grievous sins, the consequences of which almost destroyed the efforts of his followers.
For us, the reminder of the Great Commandment in the Gospel should help us to focus on understanding that there is an internal battle, and in recognizing it, build our spiritual defenses against that adversary that would drive us to secular hedonism. The Lord, being a true man, was able to completely defeat the enemy that would lead him to sin. With his example and help, we pray that we too may defeat our baser desires, and truly live as children of God, loving God and neighbor as he intended.
Pax
[1] The picture is “St Michael Vanquishing the Devil” by Bonifacio Veronese, c. 1530.
[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] NAB note on Psalm 107.
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