나바르 매일미사 독서/묵상

Wednesday

27th Week of Ordinary Time
　

(I) 1st Reading: Jonah 4:1-11

Jonah's sense of grievance
---------------------------------------
[1] But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. [2] And he prayed to
the Lord and said, "I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my
country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a
gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and
repentest of evil. [3] Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech thee,
for it is better for me to die than to live." [4] And the Lord said, "Do you do well
to be angry?" [5] Then Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city,
and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should
see what would become of the city.

[6] And the Lord God appointed a plan, and made it come up over Jonah, that it
might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was
exceedingly glad because of the plant. [7] But when dawn came up the next day,
God appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered. [8] When
the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head
of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, "It is
better for me to die than to live."

God corrects Jonah and justifies his taking pity on Nineveh
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[9] But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he
said, "I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." [10] And the Lord said, "You
pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow, which came
into being in a night, and perished in a night. [11] And should not I pity Nineveh,
that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand per-
sons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

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

4:1-11. The Ninevites repent, and God refrains from pursuing his course of ac-
tion. The book could end here, if its message were simply that God's salvation
extends to the Gentiles as well. However, the dialogue that now takes place be-
tween Jonah and the Lord gives an unexpected twist to the story and enriches it
from the doctrinal point of view: it shows the full extent of God's mercy; it tells
us why some prophetical oracles did not come true, even though they were the
utterances of genuine prophets; and it explains, in a definitive way, the reasons
behind God's actions.

As in the rest of the book, the message lies in the characters themselves, parti-
cularly Jonah. He preached in Nineveh, but all the indications are that he did not
expect to have any effect. Indeed, even though he has seen that God has deci-
ded to forgive Nineveh, deep down he may feel that that will not last: the Nine-
vites will go back to their old ways, or God has simply delayed punishing them.
So, he takes up a position outside the city "to see what would become of (it)"
(v. 5). At first sight, Jonah's anger (vv. 14-, 8-9) seems almost grotesque; but
there is justification for it. To distinguish true from false prophecy, Deuteronomy
gave the following criterion: "when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if
the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has
not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid
of him" (Deut 18:22). Therefore, as Jonah sees things, the Lord's decision to pu-
nish Nineveh and then his reversal of it amounted to saying that Jonah was not
a true prophet.

The question raised here is a complex one and it deserves more than a superfi-
cial reply; hence the text's insistence on the mercy of the Lord. When Jonah
earlier fled from God, even though he knew him to be the Lord, who created the
sea and the dry land (cf. 1:9), he knew that clemency and compassion were
essential traits of the Lord (cf. Ex 34:6-7); and he knows the same now (v. 4),
but he is unwilling to experience it in real life. Therefore, God uses this "castor-
oil plant" to give him a lesson about his mercy – a practical as well as a theore-
tical lesson. The plant is, in the first place, an additional proof of god's makes Jonah comfortable and soothes his anger (v. 6). But then the episode of
the plant becomes a kind of parable. If Jonah pities the plant which relieved his
discomfort (v. 10), why should God not take pity on those Ninevites? One could
think (as Jonah did) that enough was enough: a show of penance cannot dis-
guise the fact that Nineveh has always been a wicked city (cf. 1:2). And it is at
this point that the Lord gives further justification for his desire to forgive. The fact
of the matter is that the Ninevites did evil because they knew no better (they did
not know their right hand from their left: cf. Eccles 10:2) and there are more than
120,000 of them (literally, twelve times ten thousand), that is, a symbolic num-
ber suggesting that the Ninevites are more like the chosen people than Jonah
might think.

In this connexion, apropos the number of Ninevites, St John Chrysostom com-
ments: "This great number is mentioned for a particular reason: every prayer,
when it is offered in the company of many voices, has enormous power" (De in-
comprehensibile Dei natura, 3).

(II) 1st Reading: Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14

Visit to Jerusalem
--------------------------
[1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
taking Titus along with me. [2] I went up by revelation; and I laid before them
(but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I preach among
the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain. [7] But on the
contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncir-
cumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised
[8] (for he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked
through me also for the Gentiles), [9] and when they perceived the grace that was
given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to
me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles
and they to the circumcised; [10] only they would have us remember the poor,
which very thing I was eager to do.

Peter and Paul at Antioch
-------------------------
[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face, because he
stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he ate with
the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing
the circumcision party. [13] And with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely,
so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. [14] But when I saw
that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas
before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how
can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

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

1-10. St Paul had ended his first apostolic journey by returning to Antioch in Sy-
ria, from where he had set out. We know that the Christian community in that
city, which was an important crossroads of race and culture, had developed as a
providential result of the dispersal of Jerusalem Christians following on Stephen's
martyrdom (cf. Acts 11:19- 26). Some of these refugees had brought the new
faith to Antioch but had confined themselves to preaching and converting Jews.
Later, through the activity of other Christians, Jews of the Diaspora, that is, do-
miciled outside Palestine, and pagans also began to adopt the new religion.
Barnabas had been commissioned by the Jerusalem church to organize the
young Christian community in Antioch (cf. Acts 11:19-24). He later chose Paul,
who had been living quietly in Tarsus, to act as his assistant (cf. Acts 11:25-26).

The disciples in Antioch, where the name "Christians" was first used to describe
them, belonged to the whole gamut of social and ethnic backgrounds, as we can
see from the short list of "prophets and teachers" of the church at Antioch (cf.
Acts 13:1-3): some were of African origin, like Symeon "who was called Niger";
others came from the western Mediterranean, like Lucius of Cyrene; Manaen was
from the household of Herod the tetrarch; and there were Jews from communities
outside Palestine--for example, Barnabas and Saul themselves.

Among these different types, we find some Christians of Jewish background who
felt that pagan converts to Christianity should observe the prescriptions of the Mo-
saic Law (including the detailed precepts which Jewish tradition kept adding to
that Law); these guardians of the gate of entry into the chosen people were requi-
ring that pagan converts be circumcised, as all Jews were.

When these "Judaizers" from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15:1) asserted that circumci-
sion was necessary for salvation, they were raising an issue which went much
deeper than simply conforming to the Law of Moses: was the Redemption
wrought by Christ enough, of itself, for attaining salvation, or was it still neces-
sary for people to become part of the people of Israel, conforming to all its ritual
requirements?

Clearly, this question was a source of considerable division. Acts 15:2 refers to
its causing "no small dissension". The present passage of Galatians shows that
Paul, receiving a revelation from God, decided to grasp the nettle by stating un-
equivocally that Christ's redemption--on its own, and alone--brings salvation. In
other words, circumcision was not necessary, nor did the elaborate ritual regu-
lations of Judaism apply to Christians. In Jerusalem Paul expounded "the Gos-
pel" he had been proclaiming to the Gentiles. He was accompanied by Barnabas,
and by a young disciple, Titus, the son of pagan parents, quite possibly baptized
by Paul himself (cf. Tit 1:4, where he calls him his "true child"), who would later
became one of his most faithful co-workers.

1. Between his conversion and the date of his letter, St Paul had visited Jeru-
salem three times (cf. Acts 9:26; 11:29-30; 15:1-6). Of these three journeys he
here mentions only two, omitting the time he and Barnabas went there (cf. Acts
11:29-30), because that visit was not particularly significant.

The Judaizers' demands were inadmissible and clearly dangerous. That was why
Paul and Barnabas had opposed them openly at Antioch, and in fact it was their
failure to achieve unity and peace on this point that had led them to go up to the
Holy City to obtain a decision from the Apostles themselves and the priests living
in Jerusalem.

10. The Acts of the Apostles show us how concerned the early Church was
about looking after the material needs of its members. We can see this, for ex-
ample, when it tells us about "serving tables", which refers to the work of giving
help to the needy: this began to take up more and more time, with the result that
the seven deacons were appointed to allow the Apostles to concentrate on their
own specific work--prayer and the ministry of the word or preaching (cf. Acts
6:1-6).

St Paul was faithful to this charge about not forgetting the poor, as we can see
from many references in his letters to collections for the poor (cf. 1 Cor 16:1-3; 2
Cor 8:1-l5; 9:l5; etc.). Indeed, one of the reasons for his last visit to Jerusalem
was to hand over the monies collected in the Christian communities of Greece
and Asia Minor.

11-14. In his dealing with Jews, St Paul sometimes gave way in secondary mat-
ters, provided that this did not take from the essence of the Gospel: he had Ti-
mothy, whose mother was Jewish, circumcised "because of the Jews that were
in those places" (Acts 16:3), and he himself kept to Jewish practices in order to
allay suspicion and jealousy (cf. Acts 21:22-26). Similarly, he recommends pa-
tience and certain understanding towards those "weak" in the faith, that is,
Christians of Jewish origin who held on to some Jewish observances connected
with fast days, clean and unclean food and abstinence from the flesh of animals
sacrificed to idols (cf. Rom 14:2-6; 1 Cor 10:23- 30). But on the key issue of
Christians' freedom from the Mosaic Law, the Apostle was always firm and un-
ambiguous, relying on the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem. **********
mercy: it
**********

11-14. 자신이 유다인들을 대함에 있어, 성 바오로(St. Paul)는 때로는, 만약에 그것이
복음(the Gospel)의 본질로부터 취하였던 것이 아니라면, 부차적인 문제(secondary
matters)들에 있어 다음과 같이 양보하였습니다: 그는, 그의 어머니가 유다인이었던,
티모테오(Timothy)로 하여금 할례를 받게 하였는데(circumcised) "[왜냐하면] 그의
아버지가 그리스인이라는 것을 [그 지역의] 유다인들이 모두 알고 있었기 때문"
(사도행전 16,3)이며, 그리고 그 자신은 의심(suspicion)과 시기(jealousy)를 진정시키기
위하여 유다인들의 관습들을 지켰습니다(사도행전 21,22-26 참조). 유사하게, 그는
믿음(faith, 신덕)에 있어 "나약한(weak)" 자들, 즉, 단식일들, 깨끗한 그리고 부정한
음식 그리고 우상들에게 희생 제물로 바쳐진 동물들의 고기를 먹지 않음과 관련된,
어떤 유다인들의 관례(Jewish observances)들을 계속 붙잡고 있는 유다인 출신의
그리스도인들에 대한 인내와 구체적인 이해를 권고합니다(로마 14,2-6; 1코린토
10,23-30 참조). 그러나 모세 율법으로부터 그리스도인들의 자유로움에 대한 핵심
사안에 대하여, 이 사도는 항상, 예루살렘 공의회(예루살렘 사도 회의, the
Council of Jerusalem, 사도행전 15,1-35)의 결정들에 의존하여, 확고하였으며
그리고 모호하지 않았습니다.

Paul's correction of Peter did not go against the latter's authority. On the con-
trary, if it had been just anyone, the Teacher of the Gentiles might have let the
matter pass; but because it was Cephas, that is, the "rock" of the Church, he
had to take action in order to avoid the impression being given that Christians
of Gentile origin were obliged to adopt a Jewish lifestyle.

베드로(Peter)에 대한 바오로(Paul)의 바로잡음은 베드로의 권위에 반하여 나아간
것이 아니었습니다. 이와는 달리, 만약에 그가 단지 어떤 자이었더라면, 이방인들의
스승(Teacher of the Gentiles)이 이 문제를 너그럽게 보아지도록 하였을 수도 있었을
것이나, 그러나 왜냐하면 그가, 교회의 "반석(rock)"인, 케파(Cephas)였기 때문에,
이방인 출신의 그리스도인들이 어떤, 유다인들의, 생활 양식을 받아들이지 않을 수
없다는 인상이 주어지는 것을 피하기 위하여 그는 조치를 취하여야만 하였습니다.

Far from undermining the holiness and unity of the Church, this episode demon-
strated the great spiritual solidarity among the Apostles, St Paul's regard for the
visible head of the Church, and Peter's humility in correcting his behavior. St
Augustine comments: "He who was rebuked was worthier of admiration and
more difficult to imitate than he who made the rebuke [...]. This episode serves
as a fine example of humility, the greatest of Christian teachings, because it is
through humility that charity is maintained" ("Exp. in Gal.", 15).

교회의 거룩함과 단일성(unity)을 조금도 손상시키지 않으면서, 바로 이 에피소드는
사도(the Apostles)들 사이에 있는 훌륭한 영적 연대성(spiritual solidarity), 교회의
가시적 수장(visible head)에 대한 성 바오로(St. Paul)의 존중(regard), 그리고 자신의
처신을 바로잡는 데에 있어 베드로(Peter)의 겸손을 예증합니다(demonstrate).
성 아우구스티노(St. Augustine)는 다음과 같이 주석합니다: "나무람을 받았던 자는,
나무랐던 자보다 더 탄복할 만한 가치가 있는 자이며 그리고 본받는 것이 더 힘든
자입니다. [...]. 바로 이 에피소드는, 그리스도교 가르침들 중에서 가장 훌륭한,
겸손(humility)에 대한 한 개의 훌륭한 본보기(example)인데, 왜냐하면 애덕(charity,
사랑)이 지속되는 것은 겸손을 통하여서이기 때문입니다 " [성 아우구스티노
(St. Augustine), "Exp. in Gal.", 15].

12. When he speaks of these Judaizers as coming "from James", this does not
mean that they had been sent by that Apostle. It is, rather, a reference to their
coming from Jerusalem, where, after the persecution organized by Herod Agrippa
and the forced flight of St Peter (cf. Acts 12-17), St James the Less remained as
bishop. But what is probable is that these Christians, who had not given up the
Mosaic Law and Jewish observances, made use of that Apostle's name: as "the
brother of the Lord", he enjoyed universal veneration and respect.

12. 그가 이들 유다주의자(Judaizers)들에 대하여 "야고보로부터" 오는 자들로서 말할
때에, 이것은 그들이 바로 그 사도에 의하여 보내어졌다는 것을 뜻하지 않습니다.
그것은, 오히려, 헤로데 아그리파(Herod Agrippa)에 의하여 체계화되었던 박해와 성
베드로(St. Peter)의 강제된 도주(사도행전 12-17장 참조) 이후에, 성 야고보 작은 자
(St. James the Less)가 주교(bishop)으로서 남아있었던 곳인, 예루살렘으로부터
그들이 왔음에 대한 언급입니다. 그렇지만 가능성이 있는 바는, 모세 율법과 유다인들의
관례들을 포기하지 않았던, 이들 그리스도인들이 바로 이 사도의 이름을 사용하였을
수 있음에 있습니다: "주님의 형제로서", 그는 보편적인 숭상과 존경을 향유하였기
(enjoyed) 때문입니다.

Gospel Reading: Luke 11:1-4

The Our Father
----------------------
[1] He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and when He ceased, one of His
disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught His disciples."
[2] And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Our Father, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy Kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread; [4] and forgive
us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead
us not into temptation.'"

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

[번역자 주: 오늘의 복음 말씀은, 여기를 클릭하면 우리말 번역문을 읽을 수 있는,
다해 연중 제17주일 복음 말씀과 동일하다. 그리고 여기를 클릭하면, 사순 제1주간
화요일 및 연중 제11주간 목요일 복음 말씀인 마태오 복음서 6,7-15에 있는 더 긴
"주님의 기도"에 대한 해설을 읽을 수 있다].

1-4. St. Luke gives us a shorter form of the Lord's Prayer, or Our Father, than St.
Matthew (6:9-13). In Matthew there are seven petitions, in Luke only four. More-
over, St. Matthew's version is given in the context of the Sermon on the Mount
and specifically as part of Jesus' teaching on how to pray; St. Luke's is set in
one of those occasions just after our Lord has been at prayer--two different con-
texts. There is nothing surprising about our Lord teaching the same thing on dif-
ferent occasions, not always using exactly the same words, not always at the
same length, but always stressing the same basic points. Naturally, the Church
uses the longer form of the Lord's Prayer, that of St. Matthew.

"When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, 'Teach us to pray', He replied by sa-
ying the words of the 'Our Father', thereby giving a concrete model which is also
a universal model. In fact, everything that can and must be said to the Father is
contained in those seven requests which we all know by heart. There is such
simplicity in them that even a child can learn them, but at the same time such
depth that a whole life can be spent meditating on their meaning. Isn't that so?
Does not each of those petitions deal with something essential to our life, direc-
ting it totally towards God the Father? Doesn't this prayer speak to us about
'our daily bread', 'forgiveness of our sins, since we forgive others' and about pro-
tecting us from 'temptation' and 'delivering us from evil?'" (John Paul II, "General
Audience", 14 March 1979).

The first thing our Lord teaches us to ask for is the glorification of God and the
coming of His Kingdom. That is what is really important--the Kingdom of God
and His justice (cf. Matthew 6:33). Our Lord also wants us to pray confident
that our Father will look after our material needs, for "your Heavenly Father
knows that you need them all" (Matthew 6:32). However, the Our Father makes
us aspire especially to possess the goods of the Holy Spirit, and invites us to
seek forgiveness (and to forgive others) and to avoid the danger of sinning. Fi-
nally the Our Father emphasizes the importance of vocal prayer. "'Domine,
doce nos orare. Lord teach us to pray!' And our Lord replied: 'When you pray
say: "Pater noster, qui es in coelis"... Our Father, who art in Heaven...'. What
importance we must attach to vocal prayer!" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 84).

1. Jesus often went away to pray (cf. Luke 6:12; 22:39ff). This practice of the
Master causes His disciples to want to learn how to pray. Jesus teaches them
to do what He Himself does. Thus, when our Lord prays, He begins with the
Word "Father!": "Father, into Thy handsI commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46); see
also Matthew 11:25; 26:42, 53; Luke 23:34; John 11:41; etc.). His prayer on
the Cross, "My God, My God,..." (Matthew 27:46), is not really an exception
to this rule, because there He is quoting Psalm 22, the desperate prayer of the
persecuted just man.

Therefore, we can say that the first characteristic prayer should have is the sim-
plicity of a son speaking to his Father. "You write: 'To pray is to talk with God.
But about what?' About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, suc-
cesses, failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of
thanksgiving and petition: and love and reparation. In a word: to get to know
Him and to get to know yourself: 'to get acquainted!'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way",
91).

2. "Hallowed be Thy name": in this first petition of the Our Father "we pray that
God may be known, loved, honored and served by everyone and by ourselves in
particular." This means that we want "unbelievers to come to a knowledge of the
true God, heretics to recognize their errors, schismatics to return to the unity of
the Church, sinners to be converted and the righteous to persevere in doing good."
By this first petition, our Lord is teaching us that 'we must desire God's glory
more than our own interest and advantage." This hallowing of God's name is at-
tained "by prayer and good example and by directing all our thoughts, affections
and actions towards Him" ("St. Pius X Catechism", 290-293).

"Thy Kingdom come": "By the Kingdom of God we understand a triple spiritual
kingdom--the Kingdom of God in us, which is grace; the Kingdom of God on earth,
which is the Catholic Church; and the Kingdom of God in Heaven, which is eternal
bliss [...]. As regards grace, we pray that God reign in us with His sanctifying
grace, by which He is pleased to dwell in us as a king in his throne-room, and
that He keeps us united to Him by the virtues of faith, hope and charity, by which
He reigns in our intellect, in our heart and in our will [...]. As regards the Church,
we pray that it extend and spread all over the world for the salvation of men [...].
As regards Heaven, we pray that one day we be admitted to that eternal bliss for
which we have been created, where we will be totally happy" ("ibid.", 294-297).

3. The Tradition of the Church usually interprets the "bread" as not only material
bread, since "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3). Here Jesus wants us
to ask God for "what we need each day for soul and body [...]. For our soul we
ask God to sustain our spiritual life, that is, we beg Him to give us His grace, of
which we are continually in need [...]. The life of our soul is sustained mainly by
the divine word and by the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar [...]. For our bodies
we pray for what is needed to maintain us" ("St. Pius X Catechism", 302-305).

Christian doctrine stresses two ideas in this petition of the Our Father: the first
is trust in Divine Providence, which frees us from excessive desire to accumulate
possessions to insure us against the future (cf. Luke 12:16-21); the other idea is
that we should take a brotherly interest in other people's needs, thereby mode-
rating our selfish tendencies.

4. "So rigorously does God exact from us forgetfulness of injuries and mutual
affection and love, that He rejects and despises the gifts and sacrifices of those
who are not reconciled to one another" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 14, 16).

"This sisters, is something which we should consider carefully; it is such a
serious and important matter that God should pardon us our sins, which have
merited eternal fire, that we must pardon all trifling things which have been done
to us. As I have so few, Lord, even of these trifling things, to offer Thee, Thy par-
doning of me must be a free gift: there is abundant scope here for Thy mercy.
Blessed be Thou, who endurest one that is so poor" (St. Teresa of Avila, "Way
of Perfection", Chapter 36).

"And lead us not into temptation": it is not a sin to "feel" temptation but to "con-
sent" to temptation. It is also a sin to put oneself\ voluntarily into a situation
which can easily lead one to sin. God allows us to be tempted, in order to test
our fidelity, to exercise us in virtue and to increase our merits with the help of
grace. In this petition we ask the Lord to give us His grace not to be overcome
when put to the test, or to free us from temptation if we cannot cope with it.
　

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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.