Thursday
26th Week of Ordinary Time
(I) 1st Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
The Law is read out. The feast of Tabernacles
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[1] And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water
Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which
the Lord had given to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had gi-
ven to Israel. [2] And Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both
men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of
the seventh month. [3] And he read from it facing the square before the Water
Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the man and the wo-
men and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were at-
tentive to the book of the law. [4] And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit
which they had made for the purpose; [5] And Ezra opened the book in the sight
of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the
people stood. [6] And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God; and all the people
answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. [7] The Levites helped
the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. [8]
And they read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the
sense, so that the people understood the reading.
[9] And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and
the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the
Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard
the words of the law. [10] Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and
drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this
day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength." [11] So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this
day is holy, do not be grieved." [12] And all the people went their way to eat and
drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had under-
stood the words that were declared to the.
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Commentary:
8:1-18 The text of this chapter forms part of the "memoirs of Ezra" which the
sacred writer has moved and positioned here in the account of the rebuilding of
the city. By doing so, he highlights the importance of the Law in the new stage
of the history of the chosen people (as the writer sees it, this stage begins with
the reconstruction of their national and religious life spearheaded by Ezra the
priest and Nehemiah the layman). We do not know the exact year when the
events dealt with here occurred, nor the exact content of the Law proclaimed
on this occasion. It is possible that a substantial part of the present Pentateuch
was read out.
The reading and explanation of the Law did not take place inside the temple; the
people gathered around the stage specially set up in front of that building. From
the time of Solomon up to the fall of Jerusalem, religious activity centered on the
temple liturgy. From the exile onwards it was built around the Law by means of
the institution of the synagogue. Because they could not go up to the House of
the Lord, exiles used to meet in private houses or in the open air to listen to the
reading of legal and prophetical texts. The formal meeting described here, held
in a square beside the city wall, shows that in this new stage, with Ezra to the
fore, the Law of the Lord was coming to occupy pride of place in the religious life
of the people, and that it was already more important than the offering of victims
for the purpose of sacrifice.
When they hear the commandments of the Law read out, the people weep be-
cause they have not been keeping some of them and they are afraid that God
will punish them on that account. But Ezra and the Levites make them see that
what they have to do is to start again, on that day, for it is a "holy" day. It was
the festival day of the new civil year (cf. Lev 23:24-25; Num 29:1-6).
The proclamation of the Law seems to be linked to the celebration of the feast
of Booths (or Tents, or Tabernacles). That celebration was already (briefly) men-
tioned in Ezra 3:4-6, but there is a new element here (which must be due to Ez-
ra's interpretation) – the fact that the booths are made with branches cut in the
hills (cf. Lev 23:39-43). No mention is made of the day of Atonement which was
celebrated on the tenth day of the same month (cf. Lev 23:26-32). During the
seven days of the feast of booths Ezra keeps reading out the Law as Deutero-
nomy 31:9-13 lays down must be done when the year is a sabbatical one. In
these actions of Ezra and the Levites, the teachers of the Laws, we can see the
origin of what will become the "Great Assembly", the official body which will, in
the centuries to come, interpret the Law and identify which books form part of
the canon. The reading of the books of the Law will from now on become the
most important way of meeting God and listening to his word.
(II) 1st Reading: Job 19:21-27
Despite everything, Job trusts in God
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[19] All my intimate friends abhor me,
amid those whom I loved have turned against me.
[20] My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
[21] Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
[22] Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
[23] Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
[24] Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were graven in the rock for ever!
[25] For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at last he will stand upon the earth;
[26] and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then from my flesh I shall see God,
[27] whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
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Commentary:
19:21-22. This appeal to the three friends uses the same wording as used in the
Psalms with reference to God: “Be merciful to me, O God, he merciful to me”
(Ps 57:1; cf. 9:13; 31:9) etc. Job begs his friends to take pity on him in his mis-
fortune and not torment him by leveling accusations as if putting themselves in
the place of God. Genuine friendship implies kindness: “Mercy is the overflow
of charity, which brings with it also an overflow of justice. Mercy means keeping
one’s heart totally alive, throbbing in a way that is both human and divine, with a
love that is strong, self-sacrificing and generous (St Josemaria Escrivá, Friends
of God, 232).
19:25. “I know that my Redeemer lives.” As in 16:19, there is the idea of an ex-
traordinary being coming to Job’s rescue. But in the earlier speech this perso-
nage was a witness for the defence in a lawsuit. Here, however, the redeemer
(goel in Hebrew: cf. the note on Ruth 2:18-23) has an institutional meaning:
according to the Law and to tradition the goel was the closest family relative,
the person on whom it was incumbent to defend infringed rights, sometimes by
reclaiming property unjustly seized, sometimes by redeeming the relative from
slavery, and even avenging his death (cf. Ex 6:6; Lev 25:23, 47; Num 35:21).
God is given the title of goel in passages that interpret the return from exile in
Babylon as a form of redemption carried out in an exceptionally remarkable
way (cf. Is 59:20; 60:16; 63:16; Jer 50:34).
Job solemnly proclaims his faith in his goel. It is surprising that he should apply
this title to God, given that he is the one who has ill-treated and humiliated him,
and it is not clear how he could be both offender and redeemer. However, God
can be depicted as both, because in his profound inner tension Job appeals to
God for help almost at the very same time as he makes complaint against Him
(cf. 16:7-9, 21-22). In spite of its being God who has so incomprehensibly inflic-
ted suffering on him, God is still the living God, the only one who can change
the situation, if he so wills, and rehabilitate Job in the eyes of his friends. In
that sense he is Job’s god. Besides, it was common practice of Jews to call
on God as their goel in that period.
In line with rabbinical interpretation, St Jerome translated this term in the Vulgate
as “Redemptor”, and from then on Christian tradition on interpreted it to mean the
Messiah, more specifically, the risen Messiah who lives forever as mankind’s Re-
deemer. St Thomas, taking up this ancient tradition, commented: “Man, who
was created as immortal by God, brought death to himself through sin, as we
are told in Romans 5:12 [...]; only through Christ could mankind he redeemed
from that sin, and this is what Job perceived with the eyes of faith. Christ re-
deemed us from sin by dying for us […]. Mankind itself has been restored to its
fullness by being raised hack to life […], and the life of the Risen Christ will he
given to all men on the day of resurrection” (Epositio super lob, 19, 15). And St
Gregory, in his time, wrote: “Even those who are not numbered among the faith-
ful know that Christ was scourged and jeered, that he suffered many blows and
was crowned with thorns, spat upon, crucified and put to death. But I believe
with certainty that he lives beyond death: I freely confess that my Saviour, who
died at the hands of evil men, lives” Moralia in lob. 3, 14, 54.)
“At last he will stand up on the earth [or dust]”. What Job probably means is
that God’s judgment is the one which matters; compared with it all human judg-
ments are like dust. God, who is in heaven (cf. 16:19), is the only one who,
because he endures for ever, judges calmly and dispassionately.
On the basis of the Vulgate translation, which reads, ”in the last day I shall rise
out of the earth’’, Christian tradition has read these words as an announcement
of the resurrection of the dead at the end of time which is a sharing in Christ’s re-
surrection: “As [God] the Father possesses all life in himself, so he allowed the
Son to possess life perfectly. Therefore, the first cause of the resurrection of
men is the life of the Son of God” (St Thomas, Expositio super lob, 19, 25). St
Gregory the Great puts it more simply: ‘‘Our Saviour died so that we would no
longer need to live in fear of death, and he rose from the dead so that we could
put our trust in the hope of resurrection (Moralia in lob. 3, 14, 55).
19:26. As the RSV note says, the original text is open to various interpretations,
particularly the second part, “from my flesh I shall see God’’. The Spanish [and
RSV], which keep close to the Hebrew, implies that Job expects to confront God
directly that is, see God) despite his own great weakness. The New Vulgate
adapts the Vulgate to bring it closer to the Hebrew: the Vulgate on this point in-
terpreted how the resurrection of the dead would work: “I shall be clothed again
with m skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.’’ In line with that interprettation,
the text has often been used in the tradition of the Church in connexion with the
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. For example. St Clement of Rome uses
it to remind the faithful of Corinth about the promise of future resur- rection; and
he comments: “Therefore, with this hope we unite our souls to the One who is
faithful to his promises and just in all his judgments. He who com- manded us
not to lie will not himself tell a lie; deception is the only thing that is impossible
to God’’ (Ad Corinthios, 26).
However, even if Job were not speaking explicitly about the resurrection at the
end of time, he clearly desires to enter into a very close relationship with God:
He is his redeemer. He is the author of life, and He endures forever. Job hopes
to retain a hold on life and see God “with (his) eyes” (cf. v. 27) and converse per-
sonally with Him and not with a stranger, as it were (“and not another”). The
passage, therefore, is a great canticle of hope in everlasting life, spoken from
the depths of misery.
Gospel Reading: Luke 10:1-12
The Mission of the Seventy Disciples
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[1] After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of Him,
two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come. [2]
And He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray there-
fore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. [3] Go your way;
behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. [4] Carry no purse, no
bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. [5] Whatever house you enter,
first say, 'Peace be to this house!' [6] And if a son of peace is there, your peace
shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. [7] And remain in the same
house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages;
do not go from house to house. [8] Whenever you enter a town and they receive
you, eat what is set before you; [9] heal the sick in it and say to them, "The King-
dom of God has come near to you.' [10] But whenever you enter a town and they
do not receive you, go into its streets and say, [11] 'Even the dust of your town
that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the
Kingdom of God has come near.' [12] I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that
day for Sodom than for that town."
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Commentary:
1-12. Those who followed our Lord and received a calling from Him (cf. Luke 9:
57-62) included many other disciples in addition to the Twelve (cf. Mark 2:15).
We do not know who most of them were; but undoubtedly some of them were
with Him all along, from when Jesus was baptized by John up to the time of His
ascension --for example, Joseph called Barrabas, and Matthias (cf. Acts 1:21-
26). We can also include Cleopas and his companion, whom the risen Christ
appeared to on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35).
From among these disciples, our Lord chooses seventy-two for a special as-
signment. Of them, as of the Apostles (cf. Luke 9:1-5), He demands total de-
tachment and complete abandonment to divine providence.
From Baptism onwards every Christian is called by Christ to perform a mission.
Therefore, the Church, in our Lord's name, "makes to all the laity an earnest ap-
peal in the Lord to give a willing, noble and enthusiastic response to the voice of
Christ, who at this hour is summoning them more pressingly, and to the urging
of the Holy Spirit. The younger generation should feel this call to be addressed
in a special way to themselves; they should welcome it eagerly and generously.
It is the Lord Himself, by this Council, who is once more inviting all the laity to
unite themselves to Him ever more intimately, to consider His interests as their
own (cf. Philippians 2:5), and to join in His mission as Savior. It is the Lord who
is again sending them into every town and every place where He Himself is to
come (cf. Luke 10:1). He sends them on the Church's apostolate, an apostolate
that is one yet has different forms and methods, an apostolate that must all the
time be adapting itself to the needs of the moment; He sends them on an apos-
tolate where they are to show themselves His cooperators, doing their full share
continually in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor cannot be
lost (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58)" (Vatican II, "Apostolicam Actuositatem", 33).
3-4. Christ wants to instill apostolic daring into His disciples; this is why He says,
"I send you out", which leads St. John Chrysostom to comment: "This suffices to
give us encouragement, to give us confidence and to ensure that we are not afraid
of our assailants" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 33). The Apostles' and disciples' bold-
ness stemmed from their firm conviction that they were on a God-given mission:
they acted, as Peter the Apostle confidently explained to the Sanhedrin, in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "for there is no other name under heaven by
which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
"And the Lord goes on," St. Gregory the Great adds, "Carry no purse, no bag,
no sandals; and salute no one on the road.' Such should be the confidence the
preacher places in God that even if he is not provided with the necessities of life,
he is convinced that they will come his way. This will ensure that worry about pro-
viding temporal things for himself does not distract him from providing others with
eternal things" ("In Evangelia Homiliae", 17). Apostolate calls for generous self-
surrender which leads to detachment; therefore, Peter, following our Lord's com-
mandment, when the beggar at the Beautiful Gate asked him for alms (Acts 3:2-
3), said, "I have no silver or gold" ("ibid.", 3:6), "not so as to glory in his poverty",
St. Ambrose points out, "but to obey the Lord's command. It is as if he were sa-
ying, 'You see in me a disciple of Christ, and you ask me for gold? He gave us
something much more valuable than gold, the power to act in His name. I do not
have what Christ did not give me, but I do have what He did give me: In the name
of Jesus Christ, arise and walk' (cf. Acts 3:6)" ("Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam,
in loc".). Apostolate, therefore, demands detachment from material things and it
also requires us to be always available, for there is an urgency about apostolic
work.
"And salute no one on the road": "How can it be", St. Ambrose asks himself,
"that the Lord wishes to get rid of a custom so full of kindness? Notice, however,
that He does not just say, 'Do not salute anyone', but adds, 'on the road.' And
there is a reason for this.
"He also commanded Elisha not to salute anyone he met, when He sent him to
lay his staff on the body of the dead child (2 Kings 4:29): He gave him this order
so as to get him to do this task without delay and effect the raising of the child,
and not waste time by stopping to talk to any passerby he met. Therefore, there
is no question of omitting good manners to greet others; it is a matter of remo-
ving a possible obstacle in the way of service; when God commands, human
considerations should be set aside, at least for the time being. To greet a per-
son is a good thing, but it is better to carry out a divine instruction which could
easily be frustrated by a delay ("ibid.").
6. Everyone is "a son of peace" who is disposed to accept the teaching of the
Gospel which brings with it God's peace. Our Lord's recommen- dation to His
disciples to proclaim peace should be a constant feature of all the apostolic ac-
tion of Christians: "Christian apostolate is not a political program or a cultural
alternative. It implies the spreading of good, 'infecting' others with a desire to
love, sowing peace and joy" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 124).
Feeling peace in our soul and in our surroundings is an unmistakable sign that
God is with us, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22): "Get rid of these
scruples that deprive you of peace. What takes away your peace of soul cannot
come from God. When God comes to you, you will feel the truth of those gree-
tings: My peace I give to you..., peace I leave you..., peace be with you..., and
you will feel it even in the midst of troubles" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 258).
7. Our Lord clearly considered poverty and detachment a key feature in an apos-
tle. But He was aware of His disciples' material needs and therefore stated the
principle that apostolic ministry deserves its recom- pense. Vatican II reminds
us that we all have an obligation to contribute to the sustenance of those who
generously devote themselves to the service of the Church: "Completely devoted
as they are to the service of God in the fulfillment of the office entrusted to them,
priests are entitled to receive a just remuneration. For 'the laborer deserves his
wages' (Luke 10:7), and 'the Lord commanded that they who proclaim the Gos-
pel should get their living by the Gospel' (1 Corinthians 9:14). For this reason,
insofar as provision is not made from some other source for the just remunera-
tion of priests, the faithful are bound by a real obligation of seeing to it that the
necessary provision for a decent and fitting livelihood for the priests are avai-
lable" (Vatican II, "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 20).
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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].