나바르 매일미사 독서/묵상

Thursday

11th Week of Ordinary Time

(I) 1st Reading: 2 Corinthians 11:1-11

His Zeal
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[1] I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! [2] I feel
a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride
to her one husband. [3] But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cun-
ning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. [4]
For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or
if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different
gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. [5] I think that
I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles. [6] Even if I am unskilled
in speaking, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in
all things.

He Preached Accepting No Material Support
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[7] Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I
preached God's gospel without cost to you? [8] I robbed other churches by accep-
ting support from them in order to serve you. [9] And when I was with you and was
in want, I did not burden any one, for my needs were supplied by the brethren who
came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any
way. [10] As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in
the regions of Achaia. [11] And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

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Commentary:

11:1-12:18. In spite of what he has just said, St Paul here goes on to provide an
elaborate justification of his conduct. He has a profound distaste for this and
throughout the apologia he repeatedly excuses himself (cf. 11:1, 16-18, 21, 23;
12:1, 6, 11); but he feels he has to go through with it because it is the only way
he can counter the effects of his enemies' criticism. He opens his heart to the
Corinthians to show the sufferings his life as an apostle involves and the wonder-
ful revelations God has deigned to give him; this will make them realize who this
man is who first preached the Gospel among them, and they can then compare
his credentials with those his attackers.

The whole passage shows very clearly St Paul's passionate temperament and
his ardent zeal for souls; he does not mind doing something which costs him a
great deal, if that is what has to be done to ensure that souls he has won for
Christ are not lost; and he overlooks the fact that the Corinthians have not spo-
ken out on his behalf (as was their duty: cf. 12:11), that they have not responded
to his love and vigilance for them (cf. 12:15), or that his words have been misinter-
preted (cf. 12:19). His attitude stands as a very good example of upright intention:
he devotes his whole life to souls, seeking no human recompense (cf. 12:15).

He begins by asking them to forgive his boasting (11:1-6), and goes on to point
out that one of his boasts is that he had no worldly purpose of any kind when
preaching in Corinth (11:7-1S). Again he asks them to forgive his boasting (11:
16-21) and then lists the other points on which he can claim credit--the sufferings
in which preaching has involved him (11:22-33) and the visions the Lord has gran-
ted him (12:1-10). And at the end of the apologia he again asks them to forgive
him (12:11-18).

2-3. The simile of the husband and wife is often used in the Old Testament to
describe the relationship between God and his people (cf. Is 62:5; Jer 3:6ff; Ezek
16:8ff). God--who says of himself, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God" (Ex 20:
5)--tells his people, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6:5; cf. Mt 22:37). In the New Testa-
ment Christ is the husband and the Church his bride (cf. Eph 5:25ff; Rev 21:9; 22:
17), "whom he redeemed with his blood, and he gave the Holy Spirit to her as his
pledge. He saved her from the slavery of the devil; he gave his life for her sins and
he arose for her justification" (St Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 8, 4).

St Paul acts the part of the bridegroom's friend (cf. Jn 3:29) whose duty it is to
protect the virginity of the bride, and he sees the danger she is in from the snares
of her enemies.

"The Apostle", St Thomas comments, "is saying that the Church is like Eve; the
devil sometimes attacks her openly by the actions of tyrants and powers, in which
case he is 'like a roaring lion (who) prowls around seeking some one to devour' (1
Pet 5:8). At other times he molests her in a hidden way through heresies which
promise the truth and pretend to be sound--in which case he is like the serpent
who seduces in an astute way, promising things he cannot give" ("Commentary
on 2 Cor, ad loc.").

4. It is not possible to say exactly whether the Apostle is referring to something
which actually happened, or whether he is proposing an absurd hypothesis. If the
first, he may be referring to the teachings of the Judaizers, who were arguing that
in order to be saved it was necessary to keep the prescriptions of the Old Law--
which meant substituting the spirit of sons of God for the spirit of slavery, thereby
undervaluing the person of Christ and his work of salvation.

If he is proposing a theoretical case, what he means is that if anyone preaches
to them a more sublime Gospel than the one he has preached they would do well
to listen to that preacher; but that could not happen, because there is only one
esus and only one Gospel (cf. Gal 1:6-9), and, moreover, as he goes on to tell
them in detail, he is in no way inferior to these intruders who are making out that
they are apostles.

"Another Jesus": this follows the Greek text. The New Vulgate has "another
Christ".

5-6. In speaking here of these "superlative apostles" St Paul does not seem to
be referring to the Apostles chosen by our Lord, but rather to be alluding sarcas-
tically to his opponents. Later on he will refer to them again in the same terms
(12:11; cf. 1 Cor 11:12f).

"Unskilled in speaking": this cannot mean that the Apostle had special difficulty
in expressing himself: he must mean that he is not a professional orator, that is,
someone who, after the style of the time, had been trained in rhetoric. Elsewhere
he has spoken at length to the Corinthians (cf. 1 Cor 1:18-34) about his apparent
lack of eloquence, and the divine wisdom which he nevertheless communicated.

7-15. St Paul made a point of preaching the Gospel without reward, not exerci-
sing his right to be financially supported by the faithful but instead earning enough
through work to maintain himself: this clearly shows the uprightness of his inten-
tion. This he explained previously (cf. 1 Cor 9:4-18 and corresponding notes), and
now repeats: he sees this as something praiseworthy and does not intend to
alter his practice (v. 10), particularly as it marks him as different from the false
apostles who have appeared in Corinth. So, it is not lack of affection for the Co-
rinthians that has led him to act in this way, nor, as he says ironically (v. 1), is
he wrong in doing so.

In Corinth, specifically, he worked at tent-making with Aquila and Priscilla (cf.
Acts 18:1-3). He experienced want, and had to "rob" others--as he says, by way
of exaggeration (v. 8)--in order to be able to keep on serving them: possibly he
is referring to Silas and Timothy as those who brought him the wherewithal from
Macedonia (Acts 18:5). As we point out in the note on I Corinthians 9:15-18, the
only exception he made was in the case of the Philippians (Philippi was the capi-
tal of Macedonia), whom he allowed to meet his need on occasions (cf. Phil 4:
15f).

Once again we can see Paul's remarkable capacity for work and self-sacrifice;
in this he sets an example for all Christians. "What did the holy apostles teach
us, or what do they teach us?", St Bernard asks himself. "Not the skill of the
fisherman, not how to make tents or things like that [...]. They taught us how to
live. o you think that knowing how to live is not much? It is a great deal, or rather
the greatest thing of all [...]. The upright life I judge to consist in suffering evils,
doing good and persevering like that to death" ("Sermon on the Feast of Sts
Peter and Paul", I, 3).

11. "God knows I do": this sentence, in the original, is somewhat ambiguous; but
he obviously is calling God to witness how much he loves the Corinthians.

(II) 1st Reading: Sirach 48:1-14

Elijah
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[1] Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire,
and his word burned like a torch.
[2] He brought a famine upon them,
and by his zeal he made them few in number.
[3] By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,
and also three times brought down fire.
[4] How glorious you were, 0 Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
And who has the right to boast which you have?
[5] You who raised a corpse from death
and from Hades, by the word of the Most High;
[6] who brought kings down to destruction,
and famous men from their beds;
[7] who heard rebuke at Sinai
and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;
[8] who anointed kings to inflict retribution,
and prophets to succeed you.
[9] You who were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with horses of fire;
[10] you who are ready at the appointed time, it is written,
to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury
to turn the heart of the father to the son,
and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
[11] Blessed are those who saw you,
and those who have been adorned in love;
for we also shall surely live.

Elisha
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[12] It was Elijah who was covered by the whirlwind,
and Elisha who was filled with his spirit;
in all his days he did not tremble before any ruler,
and no one brought him into subjection.
[13] Nothing was too hard for him,
and when he was dead his body prophesied.
[14] As in his life he did wonders,
so in death his deeds were marvellous.

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Commentary:

48:1-16. This passage is a summary of the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
The author highlights Elijah's mission to turn the heart of the father to his sons, to
placate God's wrath (v. 10). In the New Testament these same words are applied
to John the Baptist, with reference to his mission of preparing the way of the Lord
(Lk 1:17; cf. Ma! 4:5-6). Thanks to the preaching of those prophets, Sirach reminds
us, a remnant of the people remained faithful (v. 16), and the continuation of the
history of salvation was assured.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 6:7-15

An Upright Intention in Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples:) [7] "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases
as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
[8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask
Him. [9] Pray then like this: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy
name. [10] Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
[11] Give us this day our daily bread; [12] And forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven our debtors; [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from evil. [14] For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father
also will forgive you; [15] but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses."

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Commentary:

[번역자 주: 여기를 클릭하면, 사순 제1주간 화요일 복음 말씀과 동일한 오늘의 복음
말씀에 대한 아래의 해설의 우리말 번역문을 읽을 수 있다. 그리고 여기를 클릭하면,
연중 제27주간 수요일 복음 말씀인 루카 복음서 11,1-4 혹은 다해 연중 제17주일
복음 말씀(루카 11,1-13)에 포함되어 있는 더 짧은 양식의 "주님의 기도"에 대한 해설을
읽을 수 있다].

7-8. Jesus condemns the superstitious notion that long prayers are needed to
attract God's attention. True piety is not so much a matter of the amount of
words as of the frequency and the love with which the Christian turns towards
God in all the events, great or small, of his day. Vocal prayer is good, and ne-
cessary; but the words count only if they express our inner feelings.

9-13. The "Our Father" is, without any doubt, the most commented-on passage
in all Sacred Scripture. Numerous great Church writers have left us commen-
taries full of poetry and wisdom. The early Christians, taught by the precepts
of salvation, and following the divine commandment, centered their prayer on
this sublime and simple form of words given them by Jesus. And the last
Christians, too, will raise their hearts to say the "Our Father" for the last time
when they are on the point of being taken to Heaven. In the meantime, from
childhood to death, the "Our Father" is a prayer which fills us with hope and
consolation. Jesus fully realized how helpful this prayer would be to us. We
are grateful to Him for giving it to us, to the Apostles for passing it on to us
and, in the case of most Christians, to our mothers for teaching it to us in our
infancy. So important is the Lord's Prayer that from apostolic times it has been
used, along with the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments, as
the basis of Christian catechesis. Catechumens were introduced to the life of
prayer by the "Our Father", and our catechisms today use it for that purpose.

St. Augustine says that the Lord's Prayer is so perfect that it sums up in a few
words everything man needs to ask God for (cf. "Sermon", 56). It is usually seen
as being made up of an invocation and seven petitions--three to do with praise of
God and four with the needs of men.

9. It is a source of great consolation to be able to call God "our Father"; Jesus,
the Son of God, teaches men to invoke God as Father because we are indeed
His children, and should feel towards Him in that way. "The Lord [...] is not a
tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge; He is our Father. He speaks
to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but He also does so
in order to free us from them, to promise us His friendship and His love [...]. A
child of God treats the Lord as his Father. He is not obsequious and servile, he
is not merely formal and well-mannered; he is completely sincere and trusting"
([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 64).

"Hallowed by Thy name": in the Bible a person's "name" means the same as the
person himself. Here the name of God means God Himself. Why pray that His
name be hallowed, sanctified? We do not mean sanctification in the human
sense--leaving evil behind and drawing closer to God--for God is Holiness Itself.
God, rather, is sanctified when His holiness is acknowledged and honored by
His creatures--which is what this first petition of the "Our Father" means (cf. "St.
Pius Catechism", IV, 10).

10. "Thy Kingdom come": this brings up again the central idea of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ--the coming of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is so identical
with the life and work of Jesus Christ that the Gospel is referred to now as the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, now as the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 9:35). On
the notion of the Kingdom of God see the commentary on Matthew 3:2 and 4:17.
The coming of the Kingdom of God is the realization of God's plan of salvation in
the world. The Kingdom establishes itself in the first place in the core of man's
being, raising him up to share in God's own inner life. This elevation has, as it
were, two stages--the first, in this life, where it is brought about by grace; the
second, definitive stage in eternal life, where man's elevation to the supernatural
level is fully completed. We for our part need to respond to God spontaneously,
lovingly and trustingly.

"Thy will be done": this third petition expresses two desires. The first is that man
identify humbly and unconditionally with God's will--abandonment in the arms of
his Father God. The second that the will of God be fulfilled, that man cooperate
with it in full freedom. For example, God's will is to be found in the moral aspect
of the divine law--but this law is not forced on man. One of the signs of the
coming of the Kingdom is man's loving fulfillment of God's will. The second part
of the petition, "on earth as it is in Heaven", means that, just as the angels and
saints in Heaven are fully at one with God's will, so--we desire--should the same
thing obtain on earth.

Our effort to do God's will proves that we are sincere when we say the words,
"Thy will be done." For our Lord says, "Not every one who says to Me, 'Lord,
Lord' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
who is in Heaven." (Matthew 7:21). "Anyone, then, who sincerely repeats this
petition, 'Fiat voluntas tua', must, at least in intention, have done this already"
(St. Teresa of Avila, "Way of Perfection", chapter 36).

11. In making this fourth petition, we are thinking primarily of our needs in this
present life. The importance of this petition is that it declares that the material
things we need in our lives are good and lawful. It gives a deep religious dimen-
sion to the support of life: what Christ's disciple obtains through his own work
is also something for which he should implore God--and he should receive it
gratefully as a gift from God. God is our support in life: by asking God to support
him and by realizing that it is God who is providing this support, the Christian
avoids being worried about material needs. Jesus does not want us to pray for
wealth or to be attached to material things, but to seek and make sober use of
what meets our needs. Hence, in Matthew as well as in Luke (Luke 11:2), there
is reference to having enough food for every day. This fourth petition, then, has
to do with moderate use of food and material things--far from the extremes of
opulence and misery, as God already taught in the Old Testament "Give me
neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food which is needful for me, lest I
be full, and deny Thee, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:8).

The Fathers of the Church interpreted the bread asked for here not only as
material food but also as referring to the Blessed Eucharist, without which our
spirit cannot stay alive.

According to the "St. Pius V Catechism" (cf. IV, 13, 21) the Eucharist is called
our daily bread because it is offered daily to God in the Holy Mass and because
we should worthily receive it, every day if possible, as St. Ambrose advises: "If
the bread is daily, why do you take it only once a year [...]? Receive daily what
is of benefit to you daily! So live that you may deserve to receive it daily!" ("De
Sacramentis", V, 4).

12. "Debts": clearly, here, in the sense of sin. In the Aramaic of Jesus' time the
same word was used for offense and debt. In this fifth petition, then, we admit
that we are debtors because we have offended God. The Old Testament is full
of references to man's sinful condition. Even the "righteous" are sinners. Recog-
nizing our sins is the first step in every conversion to God. It is not a question
of recognizing that we have sinned in the past but of confessing our present sinful
condition. Awareness of our sinfulness makes us realize our religious need to
have recourse to the only One who can cure it. Hence the advantage of praying
insistently, using the Lord's Prayer to obtain God's forgiveness time and again.

The second part of this petition is a serious call to forgive our fellow-men, for we
cannot dare to ask God to forgive us if we are not ready to forgive others. The
Christian needs to realize what this prayer implies: unwillingness to forgive others
means that one is condemning oneself (see the notes on Matthew 5:23-24 and
18:21:21-35).

13. "And lead us not into temptation": "We do not ask to be totally exempt from
temptation, for human life is one continuous temptation (cf. Job 7:1). What, then,
do we pray for in this petition? We pray that the divine assistance may not for-
sake us, lest having been deceived, or worsted, we should yield to temptation;
and that the grace of God may be at hand to succor us when our strength fails,
to refresh and invigorate us in our trials" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 15, 14).

In this petition of the "Our Father" we recognize that our human efforts alone do
not take us very far in trying to cope with temptation, and that we need to have
humble recourse to God, to get the strength we need. For, "God is strong
enough to free you from everything and can do you more good than all the devils
can do you harm. All that God decrees is that you confide in Him, that you draw
near Him, that you trust Him and distrust yourself, and so be helped; and with
this help you will defeat whatever hell brings against you. Never lose hold of this
firm hope [...] even if the demons are legion and all kinds of severe temptations
harass you. Lean upon Him, because if the Lord is not your support and your
strength, then you will fall and you will be afraid of everything" (St. John of Avila,
"Sermons, 9, First Sunday of Lent").

"But deliver us from evil": in this petition, which, in a way, sums up the previous
petitions, we ask the Lord to free us from everything our enemy does to bring us
down; we cannot be free of him unless God Himself free us, in response to our
prayers.

This sentence can also be translated as "Deliver us from the Evil One", that is
to say, the devil, who is in the last analysis the author of all evils to which we are
prone.

In making this request we can be sure that our prayer will be heard because
Jesus Christ, when He was on the point of leaving this world, prayed to the Father
for the salvation of all men: "I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the
world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).

14-15. In verses 14 and 15 St. Matthew gives us a sort of commentary of our
Lord on the fifth petition of the "Our Father".

A God who forgives is a wonderful God. But if God, who is thrice-holy, has mercy
on the sinner, how much more ought we to forgive others--we sinners, who know
from our own experience the wretchedness of sin. No one on earth is perfect.
Just as God loves us, even though we have defects, and forgives us, we should
love others, even though they have defects, and forgive them. If we wait to love
people who have no defects, we shall never love anyone. If we wait until others
mend their ways or apologize, we will scarcely ever forgive them. But then we
ourselves will never be forgiven. "All right: that person has behaved badly towards
you. But, haven't you behaved worse towards God?" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way",
686).

Thus, forgiving those who have offended us makes us like our Father, God: "In
loving our enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who,
by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to
Himself the human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to Him"
("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 14, 19).

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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.