Monday
31st Week of Ordinary Time
(I) 1st Reading: Romans 11:29-36
The Conversion of the Jews (Continuation)
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[29] For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. [30] Just as you were
once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their
disobedience, [31] so they have now been disobedient in order that by
the mercy shown to you they may also receive mercy. [32] For God has
consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.
[33] 0 the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
[34] "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"
[35] "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?"
[36] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for
ever. Amen.
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Commentary:
29. God never goes back on anything he promises; therefore he continues to
call the Jews to enter the chosen people. He does no take account of their
disobedience or their sins: he will love them with an everlasting love, as he
promised the patriarchs and in line with the merits accruing to them for their
fidelity (cf. Rom 9:4-5). It is this very immutability of God's love that makes it
possible for "all Israel" (v. 26) to be saved. God's calling, which is eternal,
cannot cease; but we for our part can reject his call. This immutability of
God's plan is reassuring to us: it means that even if we abandon him at any
point, we can always return to our earlier fidelity; he is still there, waiting for
us.
33-36. God's admirable goodness, to both Jews and Gentiles, permitting them
to disobey and then talking pity on them in their wretchedness, causes the
Apostle to pour out his heart in words reminiscent of the Book of Isaiah: "For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (55:8-9). The designs of divine
Providence may disconcert us, may be difficult to understand; but if we
remember how great God is--he is beyond our comprehension--and how God's
power and faithfulness overcome any obstacle man may place in God's way we
will realize that the very things which seem to frustrate his plans actually serve
to forward them.
The correct attitude of man to the designs of God is one of humility. This will
lead him to realize that the mysteries of God, which are intrinsically clear, seem
obscure to us, simply because our mind's capacity is limited. Therefore, as Fray
Luis de Granada reminds us, we must avoid saying that "something cannot be
because we cannot understand it [...], for what is more in conformity with reason
than to think in the highest way of him who is the All-High and to attribute to him
the highest and best nature that our mind can conceive? [...] So it is that our
failure to understand the sublimity of this mystery has a trace and scent of
something divine, because, as we said, God being infinite must necessarily be
beyond our comprehension" ("Introduccion Al Simbolo De La Fe", part IV).
(II) 1st Reading: Philippians 2:1-4
Unity and Humility
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[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any partici-
pation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of
the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3]
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than
yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the
interests of others.
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Commentary:
1-4. Verse 1 begins with a very awkwardly constructed clause, which the New
Vulgate and the RSV translate literally. It is a conditional, rhetorical clause,
rather than an affirmative statement, and its meaning is clarified by the rest of
the sentence.
St Paul is making an affectionate appeal to the Christian good sense of the faith-
ful; he seems to be saying: "If you want to console me in Christ, complete my
joy by paying attention to the advice I am now going to give you" (cf. St Thomas
Aquinas, "Commentary on Phil, ad loc.").
The Apostle recommends that they should always act humbly and with an upright
intention (vv. 3-4) if they want charity to reign among them (v. 2). In their work and
social life ordinary Christians should be upright in all their dealings. They should
go about everything, even apparently unimportant things, in a humble way, doing
them for God. But they should also remember that their behavior has an effect on
others. "Don't forget that you are also in the presence of men, and that they ex-
pect from you, from you personally, a Christian witness. Thus, as regards the
human dimension of our job, we must work in such a way that we will not feel a-
shamed when those who know us and love us see us at our work, nor give them
cause to feel embarrassed" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 66).
This fact that our behavior can encourage others and set a headline for them
means that we need to act very responsibly: "Let us try therefore, brethren," St
Augustine says, "not only to be good but to conduct ourselves well in the eyes
of others. Let us try to see that there is nothing that our conscience upbraids us
for, and also, bearing in mind our weakness, do all that we can, to avoid disedi-
fying our less mature brother" ("Sermon 47", 14).
3-11. Verse 3 exhorts us to see others as better than ourselves. Our Lord, al-
though he was our superior in all respects, did not see his divinity as something
to boast about before men (v. 6). In fact, he humbled himself and emptied himself
(vv. 7-8), was not motivated by conceit or selfishness (cf. v. 3), did not look to his
own interests (cf. v. 4), and "became obedient unto death" (v. 8), thereby carrying
out the Father's plan for man's salvation. By reflecting on his example we shall
come to see that suffering for Christ is a sign of salvation (cf. 1:28-29): after under-
going the sufferings of his passion and death, Christ was publicly exalted above
all creation (cf. vv. 9-11).
Our Lord offers us a perfect example of humility. "The coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Scepter of God's Majesty, was in no pomp of pride and haughtiness--
as it could so well have been--but in self-abasement [...]. You see, dear friends,
what an example we have been given. If the Lord humbled himself in this way,
what ought we to do, who through him have come under the yoke of his gui-
dance?" (St Clement of Rome, "Letter to the Corinthians", 13).
3-4. "'In every man,' writes St Thomas Aquinas, 'there are some grounds for
others to look on him as superior, according to the Apostle's words, "Each of
us must have the humility to think others better men than himself" (Phil 2:3). It
is in this spirit that all men are bound to honor one another' ("Summa Theologiae",
II-II, q. 103, a. 2). Humility is the virtue that teaches us that signs of respect for
others--their good name, their good faith, their privacy--are not external conven-
tions, but the first expressions of charity and justice.
"Christian charity cannot confine itself to giving things or money to the needy. It
seeks, above all, to respect and understand each person for what he is, in his
intrinsic dignity as a man and child of God" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing
By", 72).
Gospel Reading: Luke 14:12-14
Attitude to the Poor
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[12] He (Jesus) said to the man who had invited Him, "When you give a dinner
or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich
neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. [13] But when
you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, [14] and you
will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the
resurrection of the just."
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Commentary:
14. A Christian acts in the world in the same way anyone else does; but his
dealings with his colleagues and others should not be based on pursuit of reward
or vainglory: the first thing he should seek is God's glory, desiring Heaven as his
only reward (cf. Luke 6:32-34).
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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].