26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A (가해 연중 제26주일)


1st Reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28

The Good Effects of Conversion
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[25] ”Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel:
Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? [26] When a righteous
man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it;
for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die. [27] Again, when a wicked
man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful
and right, he shall save his life. [28] Because he considered and turned away
from all the transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live, he shall
not die."

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Commentary:

18:21-32. These verses reply to a question that may arise from the doctrine of
personal retribution: If the sinner must live with the consequences of his sins,
what is the purpose of repentance? Ezekiel takes the question very much to
heart, and his reply includes one of the most beautiful summaries of divine
mercy: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked..., and not rather that
he should turn from his way and live?’ (v. 23; cf. 33:11). It is true that the ex-
planation of divine justice and punishment develops over a long period until the
New Testament is reached; even so, from the very beginning of divine Revelation,
there is never any doubt but that God is always ready to forgive. Over the cen-
turies, Christian spirituality has written beautiful pages filled to overflowing with
heartfelt trust in God’s mercy. As an example, we will quote a prayer by a Chris-
tian writer of the Armenian Church: “You are the Lord of Mercy. Have mercy on
me, a sinner, who beseeches you with sighs and tears. [...] O kind and merciful
ord! You are patient with sinners, for you have said: "if a wicked man turns away
from all his sins which he has committed none of the transgressions which he
has committed shall be remembered against him" (Ezek 18:21-22). Look, see
how I have come before you and fallen at your feet: your guilty servant pleads for
your mercy. Do not recall my sins, nor spurn me because of my wickedness [...]
You are the Lord of goodness and mercy; you forgive all sin” (John Mandakuni,
"Oratio", 2-3).

Of course, God’s forgiveness is closely interwoven with personal conversion. 
Therefore, it is not surprising to find these verses of Ezekiel being quoted in
connection with the need for the sacrament of penance: “at all times, the prac-
tice of penance in order to obtain grace and attain righteousness was necessary
for all those who fell into mortal sin, even those who sought to be washed clean
by the waters of baptism, so that, when sinfulness had been purged and set to
rights, they would detest any offense against God through their hatred of sin and
the sorrow of their souls. Thus says the Prophet: 'Repent and turn from all your
transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin' (Ezek 18:30)” (Council of Trent, Ses-
sion 14, 1). There is also a need for genuine contrition: “Contrition, which is the
most important element of penance, is a sorrow of the soul, a hatred of all the
sins that have been committed, and a desire not to sin again in the future. This
sense of contrition has always been a fundamental condition of forgiveness; the
man who falls into sin after his baptism can only receive pardon if he is contrite,
trusts in the mercy of God, and fulfills all the other conditions that are binding
in this sacrament. This Council declares that contrition encompasses not only
the end of sin and the beginning of new life, but the reparation of the old, sinful
life, as it was written: 'Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have
committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!' (Ezek
18:31)” (Council of Trent Session 14,4).


2nd Reading: Philippians 2:1-11

Unity and Humility
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[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any partici-
pation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of
the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3]
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than
yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the
interests of others.

Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-emptying
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[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though
He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
[7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
of men. [8] And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted
Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the
earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.

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Commentary:

1-4. Verse 1 begins with a very awkwardly constructed clause, which the New
Vulgate and the RSV translate literally. It is a conditional, rhetorical clause,
rather than an affirmative statement, and its meaning is clarified by the rest of
the sentence.

St Paul is making an affectionate appeal to the Christian good sense of the faith-
ful; he seems to be saying: "If you want to console me in Christ, complete my
joy by paying attention to the advice I am now going to give you" (cf. St Thomas
Aquinas, "Commentary on Phil, ad loc.").

The Apostle recommends that they should always act humbly and with an upright
intention (vv. 3-4) if they want charity to reign among them (v. 2). In their work and
social life ordinary Christians should be upright in all their dealings. They should
go about everything, even apparently unimportant things, in a humble way, doing
them for God. But they should also remember that their behavior has an effect on
others. "Don't forget that you are also in the presence of men, and that they ex-
pect from you, from you personally, a Christian witness. Thus, as regards the
human dimension of our job, we must work in such a way that we will not feel a-
shamed when those who know us and love us see us at our work, nor give them
cause to feel embarrassed" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 66).

This fact that our behavior can encourage others and set a headline for them
means that we need to act very responsibly: "Let us try therefore, brethren," St
Augustine says, "not only to be good but to conduct ourselves well in the eyes
of others. Let us try to see that there is nothing that our conscience upbraids us
for, and also, bearing in mind our weakness, do all that we can, to avoid disedi-
fying our less mature brother" ("Sermon 47", 14).

3-11. Verse 3 exhorts us to see others as better than ourselves. Our Lord, al-
though he was our superior in all respects, did not see his divinity as something
to boast about before men (v. 6). In fact, he humbled himself and emptied himself
(vv. 7-8), was not motivated by conceit or selfishness (cf. v. 3), did not look to his
own interests (cf. v. 4), and "became obedient unto death" (v. 8), thereby carrying
out the Father's plan for man's salvation. By reflecting on his example we shall
come to see that suffering for Christ is a sign of salvation (cf. 1:28-29): after under-
going the sufferings of his passion and death, Christ was publicly exalted above
all creation (cf. vv. 9-11).

Our Lord offers us a perfect example of humility. "The coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Scepter of God's Majesty, was in no pomp of pride and haughtiness--
as it could so well have been--but in self-abasement [...]. You see, dear friends,
what an example we have been given. If the Lord humbled himself in this way,
what ought we to do, who through him have come under the yoke of his gui-
dance?" (St Clement of Rome, "Letter to the Corinthians", 13).

3-4. "'In every man,' writes St Thomas Aquinas, 'there are some grounds for
others to look on him as superior, according to the Apostle's words, "Each of
us must have the humility to think others better men than himself" (Phil 2:3). It
is in this spirit that all men are bound to honor one another' ("Summa Theologiae",
II-II, q. 103, a. 2). Humility is the virtue that teaches us that signs of respect for
others--their good name, their good faith, their privacy--are not external conven-
tions, but the first expressions of charity and justice.

"Christian charity cannot confine itself to giving things or money to the needy. It
seeks, above all, to respect and understand each person for what he is, in his
intrinsic dignity as a man and child of God" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing
By", 72).

5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves, which
was in Christ Jesus', requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to
reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he was offering
himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving
to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultiva-
ting a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing
works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word,
to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same
Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Gal 2:19)" (Pius XII, "Mediator Dei",
22).

6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing
Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn
(and) adding some touches of his own, he is--under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit--giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the
most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be prac-
tised.

This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ.
The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55)
and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in
use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Chris-
tians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Beth-
lehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God
and man.

The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning
of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end
of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the ex-
treme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death
on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory.
Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity.
But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example
of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloa-
king the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead
a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He
was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has ful-
filled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits
His divine nature and which His human nature has merited.

The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life;
through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts
the whole universe on the way to salvation.

Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. "We should
learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," St. Escriva reminds us. "During His life
on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the
right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians
2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not
use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or hu-
man ambitions.

"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in per-
fect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God
who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is Passing By", 62).

6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of God": "form"
is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to
God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the
"form of God" is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul
makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation.
As the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son
of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true
God."

"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the Greek word
translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the
equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God;
therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. How-
ever, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He pos-
sessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted
about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could have become man with-
out setting His glory aside--He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as
the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all
things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as
Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and
to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).

"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb
means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its
aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature.
From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He
began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead
united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corpo-
real and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself
manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could not cease to
be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged
to Him as God--which was what He did.

Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam.
The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). By trying
to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and
by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the
gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him):
this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and
by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus
Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, "emptied Him-
self": He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too,
to the way previously taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up
for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than
recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature
at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christ's humi-
liation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to
celebrate Christ's exaltation after death.

Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility.
"What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation
entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords
clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes
to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He
who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt
one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experien-
ces even death itself" ("Oratio I In Beatitudinibus").

This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking the initiative
to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude at such a mystery and
learn from it. All the power, all the majesty, all the beauty, all the infinite har-
mony of God, all His great and immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was
hidden for our benefit in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined
to eclipse His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to approach
their Redeemer." (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).

8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we profess in the
Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had a salvific value; His death
on the cross represents the climax of His redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of
Nyssa says, "He did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather,
He took birth upon Himself in order to die" ("Oratio Catechetica Magna", 32).

Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did death on the
cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For, in the words of St. Thomas
Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc.").
In St. Paul's time death by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for
it was inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even death
on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was perfectly within His
rights to manifest Himself in all His divine glory, but He chose instead the route
leading to the most ignominious of deaths.

His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the Father's
will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient: His obedience was
active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own. He chose voluntarily to give
Himself up to crucifixion in order to redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when
one is forced to do so is not humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility
is present when one debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. on
Phil., ad loc.").

Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love for us, for
"greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"
(John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should
show that we desire to be one with Him, for love "seeks union, identification with
the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication,
His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with
the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote our-
selves and all our energies to the service of others" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of
God", 236).

9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of exaltation,
to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord Himself foretold this when
He said, "He who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).

Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His humiliation. The
Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's glorification affects his human nature
only, for "in the form of God the Son was equal to the Father, and between the
Begetter and the Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference
in majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose anything
which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" (St. Leo the Great, "Promi-
sisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is public manifestation of the glory
which belongs to Christ's humanity by virtue of its being joined to the divine per-
son of the Word. This union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an im-
mense act of humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the
human nature He took on.

For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God (Yahweh),
which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe. Also, they regarded
a name given to someone, especially if given by God, as not just a way of refer-
ring to a person but as expressing something that belonged to the very core of
his personality. Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name
which is above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human na-
ture the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue of the
hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the entire universe.

St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar to those used
by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was given dominion and glory
and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve His Kingdom,
one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all
created things. Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when re-
ferring to the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is
emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here be seen
as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal sovereignty of Yahweh:
"To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All cre-
ated things come under His sway, and men are duty-bound to accept the basic
truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used
here by St. Paul is the word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of
the Old Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this
sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."

The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God who
was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His exaltation after under-
going the humiliation of the cross. In this also Christ sets us an example: we
cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless we understand the supernatural value
of difficulties, ill-health and suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross
present in our ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to
a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross (Phil-
ippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey God's will, the cross
will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step
by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good chil-
dren of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal
shortcomings, no matter how many" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).
　

Gospel Reading: Matthew 21:28-32

The Parable of the Two Sons
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(Jesus told the chief priests and the elders,) [28] "What do you think? A man had
two sons; and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard to-
day.' [29] And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterwards he repented and went. [30]
And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but
did not go. [31] Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go
into the kingdom of God before you. [32] For John came to you in the way of righ-
teousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots
believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe
him.

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Commentary:

32. St. John the Baptist had shown the way to sanctification by proclaiming the
imminence of the Kingdom of God and by preaching conversion. The scribes and
Pharisees would not believe him, yet they boasted of their faithfulness to God's
teaching. They were like the son who says "I will go" and then does not go; the
tax collectors and prostitutes who repented and corrected the course of their
lives will enter the Kingdom before them: they are like the other son who says
"I will not", but then does go. Our Lord stresses that penance and conversion
can set people on the road to holiness even if they have been living apart from
God for a long time.
　

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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.


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