10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A (가해 연중 제10주일)
1st Reading: Hosea 6:3-6
True and false conversion – a call for love, not sacrifice
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[3] Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
His going forth is sure as the dawn;
He will come to us as the showers,
As the spring rains that water the earth.”
[4] What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes early away.
[5] Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth.
And my judgment goes forth as the light.”
[6] For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
The knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
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Commentary:
6:1-7. The call to seek the Lord at the end of the previous oracle (5:15) is res-
ponded to in 6:1-3. We hear the people speaking, led by their representatives
(the prophet, or the priests). Having suffered (vv.1-2), they are ready to repent
and return to the Lord (v. 3). However, through the prophet the Lord tells them
that their love should be steadfast (vv. 4 and 6 speak of hesed) but it is like dew
or a morning cloud: it does not survive the heat of the day. The rather puzzling
reference to “Adam” in v. 7 may mean the first man, but it could also be a city
that stood at the entrance to the promised land where the waters of the Jordan
were stopped to let the people cross (Josh. 13:16); the meaning of the passage
does not change much, whichever “Adam” is meant; the point is that trans-
gression of the Covenant has a long history that extends back almost to the
beginning; their faithfulness is as short-lived as the morning dew.
As against that, the Lord tells them where true worship lies – in steadfast love
and “knowledge of God” (v. 6). The first words of this verse have had a consid-
erable impact on Christian tradition, because they get to the heart of what
religion is all about, and because our Lord quotes them more than once (cf. Mt
9:13; 12:7) to underscore his teaching that God judges not to condemn but to
save:“For their own good, God demanded of the Israelites not sacrifices and holo-
causts, but faith, obedience and righteousness. He revealed his will through
the words of the prophet Hosea: I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the
knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (Hos 6:6). The Lord gives further
advice, saying: and if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not
sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless (Mt 12:7); and thus bear
witness on behalf of the prophets, who preached the truth, against all those who
threw their ignorance in the faces of God’s servants” (St. Irenaeus, Adversus
haerseses, 4, 17, 4).
2nd Reading: Romans 4:18-25
The Example of Abraham (Continuation)
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[18] In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many
nations; as he had been told, "So shall your descendants be." [19] He did not
weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead
because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barren-
ness of Sarah's womb. [20] No distrust made him (Abraham) waver concerning
the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, [21]
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. [22] That is why
his faith was "reckoned to him as righteousness." [23] But the words, "it was
reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, [24] but for ours also. It
will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our
Lord, [25] who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
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Commentary:
24-25. The faith of which St Paul is speaking includes among its basic truths the
redemptive Death of Christ and his Resurrection, two events which are indissolubly
linked, two ways in which God's justice and mercy are manifested.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 9:9-13
The Call of Matthew
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[9] As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the
tax office; and He said to him, "Follow Me." And he rose and followed Him.
[10] And as He sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners
came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. [11] And when the Pharisees
saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collec-
tors and sinners?" [12] But when He heard it, He said, "Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick. [13] Go and learn what this
means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners."
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Commentary:
9. "Tax office": a public place for the payment of taxes. On "following Jesus",
see the note on Matthew 8:18-22.
The Matthew whom Jesus calls here is the Apostle of the same name and the
human author of the first Gospel. In Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 he is called Levi
the son of Alphaeus or simply Levi.
In addition to Baptism, through which God calls all Christians (cf. note on Mat-
thew 8:18-22), the Lord can also extend, to whomever He chooses, a further
calling to engage in some specific mission in the Church. This second calling
is a special grace (cf. Matthew 4:19-21; Mark 1:17-20; John 1:30; etc.) additio-
nal to the earlier calling through Baptism. In other words, it is not man who
takes the initiative; it is Jesus who calls, and man who responds to this call by
his free personal decision: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John
15:16).
Matthew's promptitude in "following" Jesus' call is to be noted. When God
speaks, soul may be tempted to reply, "Tomorrow; I'm not ready yet." In the
last analysis this excuse, and other excuses, are nothing but a sign of selfish-
ness and fear (different from that fear which can be an additional symptom of
vocation: cf. John 1). "Tomorrow" runs the risk of being too late.
As in the case of the other Apostles, St. Matthew is called in the midst of the
ordinary circumstances of his life: "What amazes you seems natural to me:
that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession! That is how He
sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Mat-
thew, sitting in the custom-house. And--wonder of wonders!--Paul, in his eager-
ness to destroy the seed of the Christians" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 799).
10-11. The attitude of these Pharisees, who are so prone to judge others and
classify them as just men or sinners, is at odds with the attitude and teaching
of Jesus. Earlier on, He said, "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew
7:1), and elsewhere He added, "Let him who is without sin among you be the
first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7).
The fact is that all of us are sinners; and our Lord has come to redeem all of
us. There is no basis, therefore, for Christians to be scandalized by the sins of
others, since any one of us is capable of committing the vilest of sins unless
God's grace comes to our aid.
12. There is no reason why anyone should be depressed when he realizes he is
full of failings: recognition that we are sinners is the only correct attitude for us
to have in the presence of God. He has come to seek all men, but if a person
considers himself to be righteous, by doing so he is closing the door to God; all
of us in fact are sinners.
13. Here Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, keeping the hyperbole of the Semitic style.
A more faithful translation would be: "I desire mercy MORE THAN sacrifice". It
is not that our Lord does not want the sacrifices we offer Him: He is stressing
that every sacrifice should come from the heart, for charity should imbue every-
thing a Christian does--especially his worship of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-13;
Matthew 5:23-24).
13. 여기서 예수님께서는,
셈족 언어 양식(Semitic style)의 과장법(hyperbole)을
유지하면서, 호세아서 6,6을
인용하십니다. 더 충실한 번역은 다음과 같을
것입니다: "나는 희생 제물보다 자비를 더 바란다(desire)."
우리가 당신께
봉헌하는 희생 제물들을 우리의 주님께서 원하지
않으신다는 것이 아니라,
모든 희생 제물이 심장(heart, 본심)으로부터 나와야만 함을
강조하고
계시는데, 이는 그리스도인이 행하는 모든 것에, 특별히
하느님에 대한
그리스도인의 경배에, 애덕(charity, 사랑)이 듬뿍 스며들게 하여야만
(imbue) 하기때문입니다. (1코린토 13,1-13; 마태오 복음서 5,23-24를
보라).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태,
출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다. 그리고 우리말 번역에 대한
저작권은 엮은이에게 있으며, 본문 중의 우리말 번역문들을 복사하여 가져가는 것을
허락하지 않습니다.]