Mother Church celebrates Sunday, March 03, 2019, as the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray, “The Lord has been my strength; he has led me into freedom. He saved me because he loves me. Amen.”
The first reading stresses the need for having a religion based on a man’s relationship with the other. Religion should be a means to go to and accept the other person. It binds us with God and with one another. Today’s second reading also refers to God’s wisdom as Paul urges his Corinthian converts to thank the Lord for conquering sin and death through Jesus Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus warns against unnecessary criticism of the other person. Criticism must come from the store of goodness in our heart. If that goodness is absent, we would be better in keeping silent.
First Reading: Sir 27: 4-7
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one's faults when one speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.
V/: The word of the Lord
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
History tells us that the Book of Sirach, commonly known in Latin as Ecclesiasticus was originally written in Hebrew on the eve of the Maccabean revolt of 180 BC. The African Bible tells me that the author was an experienced Jewish scribe and teacher who established a rabbinic school in Jerusalem after retiring from his public career as a diplomat. He wrote to call attention to the challenges and dangers the Jewish culture was facing from the materialistic Greek culture that was gradually invading Palestine. The general tone of his work is a call on Jews to respect the traditional Jewish moral values and to acquire a deep knowledge and love of the scriptures as well as practical wisdom.
In the passage for our meditation, Ben Sira tells us how important a man’s words help us know his true worth. He stresses the need of having a religion based on a man’s relationship with the other, thus binding us with God and with one another
When someone is finally unmasked who, for a long time, managed to weave intrigues to damage us, plotted in the shadows and always got away, we satisfactorily exclaim: “One day or the other all the bad things that someone has done in the past have come back to bite or haunt the individual.”
In those days, women would place grain in a sieve and then carefully sift to separate it from impurities, from the leaves, from specks, from the chaff. The potters do not even boast of the beauty of their vessel before it has been cooked in the fire and passed through the heat of the furnace that could reduce it to pieces.
Today’s reading begins by saying that, in comparison to others, often we behave as women who sift the wheat: we turn and toss them, shake them well, we throw them in the air, exposing them to the wind as long as we cannot bring out all defects, all the waste, all the flaws they have. We act as the potters: we subject them to the test of fire, keep them months and years in the furnace of our strict controls. If we judge ourselves with the same rigor, we would discover not only the boundaries of others but also our many shortcomings (v. 4).
Sirach gives wise advice: we should not be influenced by the first impression. To know what people have in their hearts we must let them talk because “a man is tested by his conversation…a man’s feeling can be detected in what he says” (vv. 5-6). In conclusion, the rule to follow is: “Praise no one before he has spoken, since this is the acid test” (v. 7).
Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:54-58
Brothers and sisters: When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victor through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
For the fourth consecutive Sunday, a passage of the first letter to the Corinthians chapter 15 is proposed to us: Today it is the final one and the theme is always the same: the resurrection.
Paul sums up what he has been saying, that is, when people enter the new life people, they simply do not recover the body they have in this world, but they receive a new one, covered with incorruptibility and immortality (v. 54). So—he says—the word of the Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up by victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” (vv. 54-55). The status of the “resurrected” is not comparable to that of one who lives in this world. Death, with all its allies—pain, disease, hunger, violence, hatred—will never have any more power over people, because Christ’s victory will be total and definitive (vv. 56-57).
Paul urges his converts not to contemplate the wonders that await them but to work, to engage in this world, in the certainty that all the good that they build, all the love they spread will not be lost. “Be steadfast—he says—be firm, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that with him, your labor is not without fruit” (v. 58).
Gospel – Luke 6: 39-45
Jesus told his disciples a parable, "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye. "A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks."
V/ The Gospel of the Lord
R/ Praise be to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
In today’s passage the recipients of the Lord’s dramatic warning are not, however, neither the Pharisees nor the Jews, but the disciples themselves. Even for them, there is a danger of acting like blind guides.
In the Church of the first centuries, the baptized were called the enlightened ones because the light of Christ had opened their eyes. Christians should be those who see well, who know how to choose the right values in life, which are able to indicate the right path to those who grope in darkness.
But this does not always happen and Jesus warns his disciples of the danger of losing the light of the Gospel. They can fall back into the darkness and be led, like the others, by false reasoning dictated by human “common sense.” When this happens in front of them a deadly chasm opens in which those who have trusted them also fall.
False Christian teachers can commit another error, dictated by the presumption: believing that everything they think, say and do is wise, just and in conformity with the Gospel.
They feel to have the right to issue instructions in the name of Christ, with such security as to give the impression that they substituted the Master, nay more, that they are superior. They demand titles, privileges, honors, powers that even the Master never claims to have.
To anyone in the community who feels invested with a similar authority, Jesus recalls another proverb: “A disciple is not above his master, but when fully trained he will be like his master” (v. 40).
The danger against which Jesus warns is above all to identify our own ideas, beliefs, projects with his thoughts. It is a reckless presumption, thoughtless, forgetting that we are only disciples; we feel like masters, indeed, we may behave as if we were superior to the Master.
It is not over. These false teachers claim to themselves a right even more exorbitant; they do something that Jesus himself never wanted to do (Jn 3:17): they judge, pronounce sentences against the brothers. For them, the parable of the speck and the log is told (vv. 41-42).
It is an invitation to be wary of Christians who feel always right, always sure of what they say, teach and do. They do not realize that they have before in their eyes huge logs that prevent them from seeing the light. Which ones? Passions, envy, desire to rule over others, ignorance, fear, psychological disorders from which no mortal is completely exempted. All these are big “beams” that prevent us from clearly grasping the demands of the word of God. We must take this into account and act humbly in a less presumptuous way, be less strict in imposing our vision of reality and less confident judging the others’ performance.
If today we are forced to admit that on many occasions we have shown ourselves blind, we must be very cautious in judging, imposing our beliefs, and in condemning those who express different opinions. It may be that what we think is right, maybe it is truly evangelical. However, Jesus wants that the Christian proposal is made with great humility, with great discretion and respect and, above all, never judging those who cannot understand it, those who do not feel like accepting it. The possibility of having a log in front of the eyes is not remote and must not be forgotten!
Like Sirach—we heard him in the first reading—Jesus, too, invites us to evaluate teachers according to their words: “For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart.” (v. 45). What they announce must always be confronted with the Gospel. Then we can evaluate if what is proposed is nutritious food or a poisonous fruit.
Comments