Tuesday
10th Week of Ordinary Time
(I) 1st Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Why He Has Not Visited Corinth (Continuation)
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[18] As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. [19]
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and
Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always: Yes. [20] For all the
promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him,
to the glory of God. [21] But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and
has commissioned us; [22] he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in
our hearts as a guarantee.
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Commentary:
게시자 주: 다음의 주소에 접속하면, 아래의
해설의 우리말 번역문들을 읽을 수 있다:
http://ch.catholic.or.kr/pundang/4/navarre/b_ot_7.htm
17-20. He calls on God to witness to the sincerity of his actions and to his being
a man of his word. He cannot act otherwise, he explains, because he preaches
Jesus Christ and follows him: and Christ is absolutely faithful and truthful (cf. Jn
14:6) and demanded sincerity in word and in deed (cf. Mt 5:37; Jas 5:12). The
faithfulness of Christ--in whom it is always "Yes" (vv. 19-20)--is the model for all
Christians, both those who dedicate their lives totally and exclusively to God in
celibacy and those who do so through marriage. Referring to this passage, John
Paul II teaches that "just as the Lord Jesus is 'the faithful witness' (Rev 3:14), the
'yes' of the promises of God (cf. 2 Cor 1:20), so Christian couples are called to
participate truly in the irrevocable indissolubility that binds Christ to the Church,
his bride, loved by him to the end (cf. Jn 13:1)" ("Familiaris Consortio", 20).
Relying on Christ's faithfulness the faithful are able to say that "Amen" ("So be
it"), by which they adhere fully to the Apostle's teachings. From the very begin-
ning of Christianity, the "Amen" was said at the end of the Church's public
prayers (cf. 1 Cor 14:16).
Silvanus, called Silas in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:40), had helped St
Paul to found the Church in Corinth (cf. Acts 18:5).
18. "As surely as God is faithful': so translated to evoke a form of words used in
taking a oath; literally, "Faithful is God."
21-22. As in other passages of this letter (cf. 3:3; 13:13), St Paul is here referring
explicitly to the promises made of the Blessed Trinity: it is God (the Father) who
has given us our "commission" (anointed us with grace) establishing us in the
Son, through the gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Using three different expressions--"commissioned" (anointed), "put his seal upon
us", given us his Spirit "as a guarantee"--the Apostle describes the way God acts
in the soul: in Baptism the Christian is spiritually anointed with grace and incorpo-
rated into Christ; he is thereby "sealed", for he no longer belongs to himself but
has become the property of Christ; and together with grace, he receives the Holy
Spirit as a "guarantee", a pledge of the gifts he will receive in eternal life. All
those effects of Baptism are reinforced by the sacrament of Confirmation (St
Paul may well have had this sacrament in mind also, when writing these words).
Commenting on this passage St John Chrysostom explains that by this action
the Holy Spirit establishes the Christian as prophet, priest and king: "In olden
times these three types of people received the unction which confirmed them in
their dignity. We Christians have not one of these three dignities but all three
preeminently. For, are we not kings, who shall infallibly inherit a kingdom? Are
we not priests, if we offer our bodies as a sacrifice, instead of mere animal vic-
tims, as the Apostle says: 'I appeal to you...to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God' (Rom 12:1)? And are we not constituted
prophets if, thanks to God, secrets have been revealed to us which eye has not
seen nor ear heard?" ("Hom. on 2 Cor.", 3).
"He has put his seal on us": the St Pius V Catechism uses these words to ex-
plain the "character" which the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Order
impress on the soul; Paul "not obscurely describes by the word 'sealed' a cha-
racter, the property of which is to impress a seal or mark. This character is, as
it were, a distinctive impression stamped on the soul which perpetually inheres
and cannot be blotted out" (II, 1, 30).
(II) 1st Reading: 1 Kings 17:7-16
Elijah foretells the drought (conclusion)
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[7] And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
Miracle of the flour and the oil
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[8] Then the word of the Lord came to him, [9] Arise, go to Zarephath, which
belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there
to feed you." [10] So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to
the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called
to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." [11] And
as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of
bread in your hand." [12] And she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have no-
thing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now,
I am gathering a couple of stocks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and
my son, that we may eat it, and die." [13] And Elijah said to her, "Fear not; go
and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me,
and afterward make for yourself and your sun. [14] For thus says the Lord the
God of Israel, 'The jar of meal shall not be spent, and the cruse of oil shall not
fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'" [15] And she went
and did as Elijah said; and she, and he, and her household ate for many days.
[16] The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to
the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah.
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Commentary:
17:8-16. Zarephath was 15 km. (9 miles) to the south of Sidon, the area where Je-
zebel, Ahab's wife, came from (cf. 16:31). There, Elijah was certainly outside the
jurisdiction of King Ahab who was persecuting him (cf. 1 Kings 18:10), but it is
interesting that it was a poor widow at death's door whom God chose to give the
prophet nourishment. Jesus uses the fact that it was a widow and a foreigner who
was chosen, to show that God gives his gifts to whomever he pleases, not to
those who think they have a right to them (cf. Lk 4:25-26).
Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:13-16
Salt of the Earth and Light of the World
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(Jesus said to the multitude:) [13] "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has
lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for any-
thing except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
[14] "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. [15] Nor
do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light
to all in the house. [16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven."
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Commentary:
[번역자 주: 오늘의 복음 말씀은, 여기를
클릭하면, 거기에서 아래의 해설의
우리말 번역문이 제공되고 있는, 가해 연중 제5주일의 복음
말씀과 동일하다].
13-16. These verses are a calling to that apostolate which is part and parcel of
being a Christian. Every Christian has to strive for personal sanctification, but
he also has to seek the sanctification of others. Jesus teaches us this, using
the very expressive simile of salt and light. Salt preserves food from corruption;
it also brings out its flavor and makes it more pleasant; and it disappears into
the food; the Christian should do the same among the people around him.
"You are salt, apostolic soul. 'Bonum est sal': salt is a useful thing', we read in
the holy Gospel; 'si autem sal evanuerit': but if the salt loses its taste', it is good
for nothing, neither for the land nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out as use-
less. You are salt, apostolic soul. But if you lose your taste..." (St. J. Escriva,
"The Way", 921).
Good works are the fruit of charity, which consists in loving others as God loves
us (cf. John 15:12). "I see now", St. Therese of Lisieux writes, "that true charity
consists in bearing with the faults of those about us,never being surprised at their
weaknesses, but edified at the least sign of virtue. I see above all that charity
must not remain hidden in the bottom of our hearts: 'nor do men light a lamp and
put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.' It
seems to me that this lamp is the symbol of charity; it must shine out not only to
cheer those we love best but all in the house" ("The Autobiography of a Saint",
Chapter 9).
Apostolate is one of the clearest expressions of charity. The Second Vatican
Council emphasized the Christian's duty to be apostolic. Baptism and Confirma-
tion confer this duty, which is also a right (cf. "Lumen Gentium", 33), so much so
that, because the Christian is part of the mystical body, "a member who does not
work at the growth of the body to the extent of his possibilities must be consi-
dered useless both to the Church and to himself" ("Apostolicam Actuositatem",
2). "Laymen have countless opportunities for exercising the apostolate of evange-
lization and sanctification. The very witness of a Christian life, and good works
done in a supernatural spirit, are effective in drawing men to the faith and to God;
and that is what the Lord has said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven" ("Apo-
stolicam Actuositatem", 6).
"The Church must be present to these groups [those who do not even believe in
God] through those of its members who live among them or have been sent to
them. All Christians by the example of their lives and witness of their word,
wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they put on
in Baptism, and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were streng-
thened at Confirmation, so that others, seeing their good works, might glorify the
Father and more perfectly perceive the true meaning of human life and the univer-
sal solidarity of mankind" ("Ad Gentes", 11; cf. 36).
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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].