Friday

26th Week of Ordinary Time

(I) 1st Reading: Baruch 1:15-22

Admission of sin
-------------------------
[15] And you shall say: 'Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but confu-
sion of face, as at this day, to us, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Je-
rusalem, [16] and to our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets
and our fathers, [17] because we have sinned before the Lord, [18] and have dis-
obeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the
statutes of the Lord which he set before us. [19] From the day when the Lord
brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobe-
dient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent, in not heeding his voice.
[20] So to this day there have clung to us the calamities and the curse which
the Lord declared through Moses his servant at the time when he brought our
fathers out of the land of Egypt to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey.
[21] We did not heed the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the pro-
phets whom he sent to us, but we each followed the intent of his own wicked
heart by serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our
God.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary: 

1:15-22. This passage marks the start of a prayer of lamentation and contrition --
themes that take up a large part of the book. Similar sentiments are to be found 
in Daniel 9:5-11. A chorus is repeated at three points: "We have not heeded the
voice of the Lord" (cf. vv. 18, 19, 21; cf. 2:5). Three sins are singled out – disobe-
dience to the Lord's commandments (v. 18); failure to listen to the message of
the prophets sent by God (v. 21); and lapsing into idolatry (v. 22).
　

(II) 1st Reading: Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

The Lord Speaks to Job
-----------------------------------
[1] Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

[12] ”Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
[13] that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
[14] It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment.
[15] From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
[16] Have you entered into the springs of the sea, 
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
[17] Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
[18] Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
[19] Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
[20] that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
[21] You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!

Job bows before God
------------------------------
[3] Then Job answered the Lord:
[4] Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
[5] I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but I will proceed no further.”

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

38:1-42:6. The theophany and the Lord’s discourse that follow it form the climax
of the book: after each of the friends and the impertinent Elihu have opined on
Job’s attitude and on the meaning of suffering, and after Job himself has repeat-
edly called on God to pronounce judgment, God’s intervention gives a perfect
finish to the whole debate. The Lord upbraids the friends for rejecting the very
idea that he would appear in person to reply to Job, and he commends Job for
his desire to meet with Him.

The content of the Lord’s speeches are along the lines of the previous Ones as
regards created beings reflecting the power and wisdom of their Maker; but the
tone is very different. The Lord does not take issue with Job’s views or lament
his misfortune, or even respond directly to Job’s demand that his innocence be
recognized; what he wants him to do is to watch a fiIm documentary, as it were,
recording the wonders of creation; to discover the beauty and endowments of
created beings; and to acknowledge, in all simplicity, the sovereignty and wis-
dom of the Creator.

From a literary point of view, the Lord’s discourses contain typical descriptions
of all kinds of creatures, such as the ostrich (39:13-18), the warhorse (39:19-25),
and Behemoth and Leviathan (40:15-41:26). These animals are depicted so ex-
pertly, with a mixture of realism and fantasy, that we don’t know whether they
belong to the world of reality or that of mythology. But they are all creatures of 
the Lord.

The theophany consists of two lengthy speeches by God (38:4-39:30; 40:15-41:
26), each preceded by an appeal to Job (38:1-3; 40:6-14) and each followed by
a grateful and humble response from Job (40:3-5; 42:1-6).

38:1-39:30. The Lord’s first speech is very rich in language and very skillfully
constructed, but the message is quite simple: God is present in places where
Job or no one else has ever been; he has acted and does act where no human
being ever could or can: he arranges things most wisely and takes the greatest
care of created beings (stars, birds, animals) far beyond man’s reach. In other
words, God is infinitely more powerful than Job; yet here he is, inviting him to en-
gage in conversation and join him in contemplating the wonders of the cosmos
and of the animal world.

This speech cannot be described as a class in Creation Theology; and in fact
in few places does it overlap with creation accounts in Genesis or in the book of
Wisdom; it is rather, a sapiential description of the entire universe and of the way
created beings operate; no account is taken of secondary causes or of the use-
fulness these beings may have for man.

The speech consists of an introduction (38:1-3) and two lengthy sections. The
first of these focuses on the inanimate world (38:4-38), and the second on the
animal world (38:39-39:30). The first has a certain logical order to it, ranging out
from the better known to the more remote phenomena -- earth, sea, light, the
ends of the earth, and the abyss, the elements, stars … But the animal section
seems to have no particular order to it; instead, the writer uses devices found in
wisdom literature: his list of animals runs to ten (ten being a number symbolizing
completeness) – lion, raven, goat, deer, wild ass, wild ox, ostrich, horse, lark,
eagle; by choosing undomesticated animals, he accentuates the power of God.

38:1-3. The introduction to these speeches provides keys to their meaning. It
uses the proper name of the God of Israel, the Lord (Yhwh), as does the pro-
logue (2:1-7) and epilogue (42:7-17) of the book itself, whereas in the preceding
debate, as we have seen, the generic Greek name appears (‘El, Eloah, Elohim,
Shaddai). This serves to underline that genuine wisdom belongs to the God of
Israel, and he communicates it to his people. The text keeps repeating that it
is God who is speaking: “And the Lord said …”, “the Lord answered.” The theo-
phany “out of the whirlwind” would alone have made this plain; it was a whirlwind
that took Elijah up to heaven (2 Kings 2:1,11) and it figures in the eschatological
appearan- ces of the Lord (cf. Ezek 1:1-3; 15; Zech 9:14); even if God had made
himself silently present, Job would have had his desire fulfilled: he would have
met the Lord. But by responding to Job with words, God is bestowing on him
the same sign of favour as he gave to the patriarchs and to Moses, with whom
he spoke face to face. In this way the sacred writer shows how very worthy a
person Job is.

“Who is this that darkens counsel” (v. 2): the Hebrew word translated as ‘‘coun-
sel”(‘esah) means God’s plan, his purposes, which stay unchanged for all eter-
nity (cf. Is 25:1) and are irrevocable (Is 14:24, 26). What the word primarily
means here is governance of the universe, that is, divine providence: “Since hu-
man reason on its own cannot comprehend the truth of divine providence, the
argument between Job and his friends needed to he resolved by divine authority
[...]. So the Lord, as arbitrator of the dispute, criticizes the friends whose words
do not judge Job fairly, and Elihu for his mistaken assumptions” (St Thomas
Aquinas, Expositio super lob, 38, 2). But, given that in the Old Testament this
word is always connected with divine intervention in the lives of nations and indi-
viduals (Jer 32:19), here it also applies to God’s part in making Job’s life so
miserable. Job has raised objections to this. The Lord himself now invites him
to view this counsel, these “plans”, from the point of view of God, not man.
Man’s perspective is narrow and blurred.

“I will question you, and you shall declare to me” (v. 3). In keeping with the tone
of irony that surfaces elsewhere in the speech (38:4, 18, 21), the Lord grants Job
the status of interlocutor and implies that he is capable of answering all the great
questions and of supplying the sort of sapiential argument he will use in his
speech. At no point does God try to humiliate Job; he is simply encouraging him
to accept with a good grace the teaching he is going to offer him.

38:4-15. The description of the earth (vv. 4-7), the sea (vv. 8-11) and the sunlight
(vv. 12-15) contains a lot of symbolism. For example, the earth is depicted as an
impressive building which the stars find awesome. St Gregory the Great does 
well to apply this description to the Church, God’s beloved, built on the foundation
of the apostles and with Christ as its cornerstone; earth and Church are a source
of amazement to the angels (cf. Moralia in lob, 6:28, 5-7, 14-35).

The ocean, which was full of bluster in the high seas, becomes all mild when it
reaches the shore, just as a restless baby becomes quiet when it is held and
clothed. “The gates of the Holy Church”, St Gregory explains, “may he battered
by the waves of persecution, but they cannot he destroyed; the wave of persecu-
tion may rock the gates from without, but it cannot break through to the heart of
the Church” (Moralia in lob, 6, 28, 18, 38).

The light of dawn dispels the darkness (vv. 12-13), which is an accomplice of evil-
doers, as Job previously acknowledged (cf. 24:13-17): “Evildoers love the dark
of night, and flee in despair at the dawning of the day. For this reason he adds:
“And you shook out the wicked”, that is, you forced them to flee into hiding when
the light of day stripped away their cover of darkness” (Fray Luis de Leon, Expo-
sitio lob, 38, 13).

38:16-38. The elements mentioned in this section were things that ancient man
found difficult to fathom, so much so that they were often mythologized. First
come earthly phenomena -- sea, the deeps, death, light-and-darkness (vv. 16-21);
then weather phenomena -- snow, hail, ice, floods, lightning; and finally the con-
stellations and heavenly bodies (vv. 31-38). But God knows them to perfection
and controls them. In other words, all these things manifest his omnipotence;
he has created them with wisdom and love; (cf. Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 268).

The lesson is clear. We should believe in the sovereignty of God and in his kind-
ly providence, even though we cannot fully grasp that human suffering and evil in
general fit into the divine plan: “We firmly believe that God is master of the world
and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only
at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God’s face to face’
(1 Cor 13:12) will we fully know the ways by which -- even through the dramas of
evil and sin -- God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest (cf. Gen
2:2) for which he created heaven and earth” (CCC, 314).

40:1-5. The Lord’s speech is interrupted at this point by a short but significant ex-
change between God and Job. The style of sapiential dispute is employed again,
and the author uses this literary device to retain the reader’s attention at this deci-
sive moment in the encounter between God and Job.


Gospel Reading: Luke 10:13-16

Jesus Condemns Cities For Their Unbelief
------------------------------------------------------------
(Jesus said,) [13] "Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if
the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. [14] But
it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for
you. [15] And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to Heaven? You
shall be brought down to Hades.

[16] "He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me,
and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

16. On the evening of the day of His resurrection, our Lord entrusts His
Apostles with the mission received from the Father, endowing them with
powers similar to His own (John 20:21). Some days later He will confer
on Peter the primacy He had already promised him (John 21:15-17).
The Pope is the successor of Peter, and the bishops the successor of
the Apostles (cf. "Lumen Gentium", 20). Therefore, "Bishops who teach
in communion with the Roman Pontiff are to be revered by all as witnes-
ses of divine and Catholic truth [...]. This loyal submission of the will
and intellect must be given, in a special way, to the authentic teaching
authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he does not speak "ex ca-
thedra" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 25).
　

*********************************************************************************************
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].