Tuesday

26th Week of Ordinary Time

(I) 1st Reading: Zechariah 8:20-23

Ten promises of messianic salvation (conclusion)
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[20] "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants
of many cities; [21] the inhabitants of one city shall go to another saying, ‘Let us
go at once to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I am
going.’ [22] Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of
hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the Lord. [23] Thus says the Lord
of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold
of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is
with you.’"

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Commentary: 

8:20-22. The new situation described by the prophet will be marked by efforts
on the part of the nations to seek the God of Israel, the one, true God. All will
find divine favour in Jerusalem. This will mean the fulfillment of God’s promise to
Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him (cf. Gen 12:3).
The picture painted by the prophet is a figure of what will happen with the coming
of Christ and the establishment of his Church. 

8:23. Here the prophet graphically describes the power of intercession with God
that the Jews will have, enabling all mankind to find favour with him. The number
ten symbolizes completeness, and the name "Jew" here means an inhabitant of
Judea after the return from exile (cf. Jer 32:12). "By saying that men of every
tongue shall take hold of the robe, it is made abundantly clear that on that day
the call to holiness will be heard not only by the Israelites, but by all men and
women everywhere throughout the world" (St Cyril of Alexandria, "Commentarius
in Zacchariam", 8, 23).


(II) 1st Reading: Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23

Job's Lament
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[1] After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

[2] And Job said:

[3] "Let the day perish wherein I was born.
and the night which said,
'A man-child is conceived.'

[11] "Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?
[12] Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should suck?
[13] For then I should have lain down and been quiet;
I should have slept; then I should have been at rest,
[14] with kings and counsellors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
[15] or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
[16] Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth,
as infants that never see the light?
[17] There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.

[20] "Why is light given to him that is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
[21] who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
[22] who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they find the grave?
[23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
whom God has hedged in?

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Commentary:

3:1-42:6. The central and most important part of the book is the dialogues, which
are in verse form. It is a debate about the sufferings of an innocent man, which al-
so deals with questions to do with God, man and the order of the universe.

The debate sometimes seems quite academic -- a discussion about abstract
ideas: at other times it is rather heated and emotional, reflecting particularly the
anguish felt by one of the speakers (Job). Also, it is worth noting that, since Job
is depicted in the prologue as a devout Jew, his conversation with wise men from
other cultures makes him a symbol of the people of Israel under Persian domina-
tion and on the point of losing the hope built up in them by the prophets. In view
of the situation of the Jews during and after the exile, the question must arise:
How can God abandon his people, who have stayed true to him even when in
the direst straits? Surely he cannot oppress them on a mere whim?

As pointed out in the Introduction, there are three groups of speeches -- Job's
dialogue with his friends (chaps. 3-31). Elihu's intervention (chaps 32-37, and
the speeches of the Lord (38:1-42:6).

3:1-26. The opening words (v. 1) spell out the theme of this long monologue by
Job: he curses the day he was born. Speaking very forthrightly, dramatically and
even with a certain cynicism. the protagonist bewails his life: by contrast with the
"Let there he light" of creation (Gen 1:3), which distinguished day from night. Job
asks that the day of his birth he plunged into darkness forever (vv. 3-10). The rhe-
torical questions and statements in vv. 11-19 express doubts as to whether life is
worth living: If a person is suffering, is death not more desirable than life? The last
part of this soliloquy, (vv. 20-26) asks the question about God almost without men-
tioning him: What sense can we make of things if God brings into being someone
who is destined to suffer? Job feels so wretched that he cannot find the answer,
but the fact that he asks this series of questions implies that an answer there
must he.

Early commentators often posed the question: By speaking as he did, did Job
not sin? St Gregory the Great goes so far as to comment that what Job says is
unreasonable if one looks at it superficially, but that "in using these words the
holy man does not mean them literally" (Moralia in lob. 4,3). Most commentators,
however, justify Job's lament by arguing that there is no sin involved in someone
desiring to lie no longer if he is weighed down by suffering: sin comes in if a per-
son commits suicide or desires to do so. Jeremiah, too, cursed the day of his
birth (cf. Jer 20:14-17), but he did not sin (cf. St Thomas, Expositio super lob).
Although for other reasons entirely, mystics, too, have experienced a desire to
die, in their eagerness to be in heaven. St Teresa of Avila, for example, goes so
far as to say, "And I live in hope of so high a form of life, that I die because I do
not die" (Poems, 2).

"Those who curse the day" (v. 8): those who love darkness because they can
do evil under cover of it: but even they should curse that night.

3:11-19. Death is seen here in the same kind of way as in traditional wisdom --
as marking the start of a vague existence akin to non-being. Therefore, as com-
pared with suffering it is a place of rest, like a dream, all silent (v. 13), far remo-
ved from the noise created by evildoers (v. 17) or the barks of the taskmaster (v.
18). And there is no distinction of persons there: the poorest are on a par with
kings and magnates (vv. 14-15), the small with the great, servants with masters
(v. 19).

In the light of later Revelation, particularly the death and resurrection of Christ,
death is no longer seen as mere relief from suffering: it marks the point when
one begins to enjoy one's reward: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
henceforth.' 'Blessed indeed': says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their la-
bours, for their deeds follow them'" (Rev 14:13). So, for a Christian, death is the
antechamber to the resurrection of the dead. "Since we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have
fallen asleep" (1 Thess 4:14). St Bernard puts it very nicely: "The death of the
just man is good because it brings him peace: it is better still for the new joy it
gives to him, and best of all because the peace and joy that death brings are
never-ending" (Epistolae, 105).


Gospel Reading: Luke 9:51-56

Some Samaritans Refuse to Receive Jesus
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[51] When the days drew near for Him (Jesus) to be received up, He set
His face to go to Jerusalem. [52] And He sent messengers ahead of Him,
who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for
Him; [53] but the people would not receive Him, because His face was
set toward Jerusalem. [54] And when His disciples James and John saw
it, they said, "Lord, do You want us to bid fire come down from Heaven
and consume them?" [55] But He turned and rebuked them. [56] And they
went on to another village.


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Commentary:

51. "When the days drew near for Him to be received up": these words
refer to the moment when Jesus will leave this world and ascend into
Heaven. Our Lord will say this more explicitly during the Last Supper:
"I come from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am
leaving the world and going to the Father" (John 16:28). By making His
way resolutely to Jerusalem, towards His Cross, Jesus freely complies
with His Father's plan for His passion and death to be the route to His
resurrection and ascension.

52-53. The Samaritans were hostile towards the Jews. This enmity
derived from the fact that the Samaritans were descendants of marriages
of Jews with Gentiles who repopulated the region of Samaria at the time
of the Assyrian captivity (in the eight century before Christ). There
were also religious differences: the Samaritans had mixed the religion
of Moses with various superstitious practices, and did not accept the
temple of Jerusalem as the only place where sacrifices could properly
be offered. They built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, in
opposition to Jerusalem (cf. John 4:20); this was why, when they
realized Jesus was headed for the Holy City, they refused Him
hospitality.

54-56. Jesus corrects His disciples' desire for revenge, because it is
out of keeping with the mission of the Messiah, who has come to save
men, not destroy them (cf. Luke 19:10; John 12:47). The Apostles are
gradually learning that zeal for the things of God should not be bitter
or violent.

"The Lord does everything in an admirable way [...]. He acts in this
way to teach us that perfect virtue retains no desire for vengeance,
and that where there is true charity there is no room for anger--in
other words, that weakness should not be treated with harshness but
should be helped. Indignation should be very far from holy souls, and
desire for vengeance very far from great souls" (St. Ambrose,
"Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").

An RSV footnote after the word "rebuked" in verse 55 points out that
other ancient authorities add "and He said `You do not know what
manner of Spirit you are of; for the Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives but to save them'". These words appear in a considerable
number of early Greek MSS and other versions and were included in the
Clementine Vulgate; but they do not appear in the best and oldest Greek
codexes and have not been included in the New Vulgate.
　

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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].