Monday

1st Week of Lent

1st Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18

Moral and Religious Duties
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[1] And the LORD said to Moses, [2] "Say to all the congregation of the people
of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.

[11] "You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. [12] And you
shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am
the LORD.

[13] "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired
servant shall not remain with you all night untiI the morning, [14] You shall not
curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your
God: I am the LORD.

[15] "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor
or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. [16]
You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall
not stand forth against the your nelg our: I am the LORD.

[17] "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your
neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. [18] You shall not take vengeance or
bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

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Commentary:

19:1-37. The holiness asked of the Israelites is much more than merely ritual
holiness. As in 20:26, the exhortation made to them is based on the highest
possible reason--the fact that the Lord is holy. The injunction to honor parents,
as also the obligation to keep the sabbath and the prohibition on idolatry, are
commandments of the Decalogue already spelt out in Exodus 20:3-4, 12;
21:15, 17. The rules about peace offerings were covered in Leviticus 7:11-15,
and the rules to protect the weaker members of society are repeated on a
number of occasions (cf. 23:22; Deut 24.19.22).

Verse 2 ("You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy": cf. also 20:26) and
v. 18 ("you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord":cf. also 19:33-34)
sum up the entire ethic of Leviticus and indeed of the whole Law of God. Jesus
himself says this, as reported in Matthew 22:34-40 (parallel texts in Mk 12:28-31
and Luke 10:25-28): "When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Saddu-
cees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to
test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' And he said to
him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second
is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
depend all the law and the prophets' " (Mt 22:34-40).

19:1-8. Our Lord refers to the criteria about perjury in his Sermon on the Mount,
in which he rejects the prevalent abuse of swearing by holy things such as heaven,
earth or the holy city for no good reason (cf. Mt 5:33-37). Jesus' teaching on this
point is that all one need do is simply tell the truth, without any oath to back up
one's words. St James reminds Christians of that same teaching (cf. Jas 5:12).
The blind and the deaf (v. 14) are to be respected out of fear of the Lord: any
harm done them he regards as done to himself. Fraternal correction is a practice
which Jesus will put on a higher plane (cf. Mt 18:15f). He does the same for love
of neighbor. For one thing, one's neighbor is not just members of the Jewish
people or sojourners in Judea: for Christ everyone we meet is our neighbor,
irrespective of his religion or race. And it is not just a matter of loving others as
oneself, but of loving them as Christ loved us (cf. Jn 15:12).

19:13. The social teaching of the Church, which is part of moral theology and is
based on Revelation and on reason enlightened by faith, is summed up on the
subject of the just wage by the "Catechism of the Catholic Church": "A just wage
is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice (cf
Lev 19:13; Deut 24:14-15; Jas 5:4), In determining fair pay both the needs and
the contributions of each person must be taken into account. 'Remuneration for
work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for
himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking
into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and
the common good' ("Gaudium Et Spes", 67). Agreement between the parties is
not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages" (no.2434).

19:15. "Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to
give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the 'virtue of
religion'. Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to
establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard
to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sac-
red Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of
his conduct toward his neighbor. 'You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to
the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor' (Lev 19:15)"
("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 1807).


Gospel Reading: Matthew 25:31-46

The Last Judgment
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[31] "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne. [32] Before Him will be gathered all the
nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats, [33] and He will place the sheep at His right hand,
but the goats at the left. [34] Then the King will say to those at His right hand,
`Come, O blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world; [35] for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirs-
ty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, [36] I was
naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and
you came to Me.' [37] Then the righteous will answer Him, `Lord, when did we
see Thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? [38] And when
did we see Thee a stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? [39]
And when did we see Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?' [40] And the King
will answer them, `Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of My
brethren, you did it to Me.' [41] Then He will say to those at His left hand, 
Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; [42] for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you
gave Me no drink, [43] I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me, naked
and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' [44]
Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty or
a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?' [45]
Then He will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the
least of these, you did it not to Me.' [46] And they will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

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Commentary:

[번역자 주: 오늘의 복음 말씀은, 여기를 클릭하면 그 해설들에 대한 우리말 번역문을 
읽을 수 있는, 가해 그리스도 왕 대축일의 복음 말씀과 동일하다.]

31-46. The three parables (Matthew 24:42-51; 25:1-13; and 25:14-30) are com-
pleted by the announcement of a rigorous last judgment, a last act in a drama,
in which all matters of justice are resolved. Christian tradition calls it the Last
Judgment, to distinguish it from the "Particular Judgment" which everyone
undergoes immediately after death. The sentence pronounced at the end of
time will simply be a public, formal confirmation of that already passed on the
good and the evil, the elect and the reprobate.

31-33. In the Prophets and in the Book of Revelation the Messiah is depicted on
a throne, like a judge. This is how Jesus will come at the end of the world, to
judge the living and the dead.

The Last Judgment is a truth spelled out in the very earliest credal statements
of the Church and dogma of faith solemnly defined by Benedict XII in the Consti-
tution "Benedictus Deus" (29 January 1336).

35-46. All the various things listed in this passage (giving people food and drink,
clothing them, visiting them) become works of Christian charity when the person
doing them sees Christ in these "least" of His brethren.

Here we can see the seriousness of sins of omission. Failure to do something
which one should do means leaving Christ unattended.

"We must learn to recognize Christ when He comes out to meet us in our
brothers, the people around us. No human life is ever isolated. It is bound up
with other lives. No man or woman is a single verse; we all make up one divine
poem which God writes with the cooperation of our freedom" ([Blessed] J.
Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 111).

We will be judged on the degree and quality of our love (cf. St. John of the Cross,
"Spiritual Sentences and Maxims", 57). Our Lord will ask us to account not only
for the evil we have done but also for the good we have omitted. We can see
that sins of omission are a very serious matter and that the basis of love of neigh-
bor is Christ's presence in the least of our brothers and sisters.

St. Teresa of Avila writes: "Here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for His
Majesty and love of our neighbor. It is for these two virtues that we must strive,
and if we attain them perfectly we are doing His will [...]. The surest sign that
we are keeping these two commandments is, I think, that we should really be
loving our neighbor; for we cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may
have good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we
are loving our neighbor. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you
are in this, the greater the love you will have for God; for so dearly does His
Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the
love which we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways: this I cannot doubt"
("Interior Castle", V, 3).

This parable clearly shows that Christianity cannot be reduced to a kind of
agency for "doing good". Service of our neighbor acquires supernatural value
when it is done out of love for Christ, when we see Christ in the person in need.
This is why St. Paul asserts that "if I give away all I have...but have not love, I
gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3). Any interpretation of Jesus' teaching on the
Last Judgment would be wide of the mark if it gave it a materialistic meaning
or confused mere philanthropy with genuine Christian charity.

40-45. In describing the exigencies of Christian charity which gives meaning to
"social aid", the Second Vatican Council says: "Wishing to come to topics that
are practical and of some urgency, the Council lays stress on respect for the
human person: everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception)
as another self, bearing in mind, above all, his life and the means necessary for
living it in a dignified way, `lest he follow the example of the rich man who
ignored Lazarus, the poor man' (cf. Luke 16:18-31).

"Today there is an inescapable duty to make ourselves the neighbor of every
man, no matter who he is, and if we meet him, to come to his aid in a positive
way, whether he is an aged person abandoned by all, a foreign worker despised
without reason, a refugee, an illegitimate child wrongly suffering for a sin he did
not commit, or a starving human being who awakens our conscience by calling
to mind the words of Christ: `As you did it to one of the least of these My breth-
ren, you did it to Me.'" ("Gaudium Et Spes," 27).

46. The eternal punishment of the reprobate and the eternal reward of the elect
are a dogma of faith solemnly defined by the Magisterium of the Church in the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "He [Christ] will come at the end of the world; 
He will judge the living and the dead; and He will reward all, both the lost and
the elect, according to their works. And all these will rise with their own bodies
which they now have so that they may receive according to their works, whether
good or bad; the wicked, a perpetual punishment with the devil; the good, eternal
glory with Christ."

　

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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].