Wednesday
7th Week of Ordinary Time
(I) 1st Reading: Sirach 4:11-19
Love of Wisdom
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[11] Wisdom exalts her sons and gives help to those who seek her. [12] Who-
ever loves her loves life, and those who seek her early will be filled with joy. [13]
Whoever holds her fast will obtain glory, and the Lord will bless the place she
enters. [14] Those who serve her will minister to the Holy One; the Lord loves
those who love her. [15] He who obeys her will judge the nations, and whoever
gives heed to her will dwell secure. [16] If he has faith in her he will obtain her,
and his descendants will remain in possession of her. [17] For at first she will
walk with him on tortuous paths, she will bring fear and cowardice upon him,
and will torment him by her discipline until she. trusts I and she will test him
with her ordinances. [18] Then she will come straight back to him and gladden
him, and will reveal her secrets to him. [19] If he goes astray she will forsake
him, and hand him over to his ruin.
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Commentary:
4:11-19. This passage, as do others in the wisdom books, proclaims the advan-
tages that wisdom brings to those who seek her. Read in a Christian context,
where we can see Jesus Christ as being the Wisdom of God become man, eve-
rything it says becomes very plain. The quest for wisdom is indeed the quest for
"the Holy One" (v. 14), that is, God himself. The path described here (vv. 17-21)
with all its twists and turns, is the path to intimate knowledge of God.
(II) 1st Reading: James 4:13-17
Trust in Divine Providence
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[13] Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such
a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain"; [14] whereas you do not
know about tomorrow. What is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a
little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills,
we shall live and we shall do this or that." [16] As it is, you boast in your arro-
gance. All such boasting is evil. [17] Whoever knows what is right to do and
fails to do it, for him it is sin.
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Commentary:
13-17. Overweening self-confidence is a type of pride because it means one is
forgetful of who God, in his providence, rules over the lives of men. St James
reminds those who are totally caught up in their business affairs that human life
is something very impermanent (v. 14). He made the same point earlier with the
simile of the flower of the grass (cf. 1:9-11); now he puts it in terms of the fleeting-
ness of mist (a familiar Old Testament image; cf., e.g., Job 7:7-16; Ps 102;4;
Wis 2:4). "Earthly life is a wearisome thing," St Gregory the Great reminds us,
"more unreal than fables, faster than a runner, with many ups and down caused
by unreliability and weakness; we shelter in houses made of clay (in fact, life
itself is merely clay); our fortitude, our resolution, has no substance; such rest
and repose as we get in the midst of our activities and difficulties is of no help"
("Exposition on the Seven Penitential Psalms", Ps. 109, Prologue).
A Christian should trustingly abandon himself into the hands of God, but that
does not in any sense mean that he may irresponsibly opt out of his duties or
avoid exercising his rights.
15. "If the Lord wills": this expression is to be found elsewhere in the New
Testament; St Paul uses the same words (cf. 1 Cor 4:19) or ones like them,
when speaking about his personal plans (cf. Acts 18:21; Rom 1:10; 1 Cor 16:7).
It is a saying which has passed into popular Christian speech and it shows a
readiness to leave one's future in God's hands, trusting in divine providence.
17. As elsewhere in the letter, St James ends this passage with a general maxim
(cf. 1:12; 2:13; 3:18). In this instance, to emphasize the need to prove one's faith
and one's grasp of the faith by action (cf. 2:14-16), he gives a warning about sins
of omission. Once again, the Master's teachings are reflected in what the sacred
writer says: "the servant who knew his master's will, and did not make ready or
act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating" (Lk 12:47).
Gospel Reading: Mark 9:38-40
Being the Servant of All
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[38] John said to Him (Jesus), "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in
Your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us." [39] But
Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in My name
will be able soon after to speak evil of Me. [40] For he that is not against us is
for us."
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Commentary:
38-40. Our Lord warns the Apostles, and through them all Christians, against
exclusivism in the apostolate--the notion that "good is not good unless I am the
one who does it." We must assimilate this teaching of Christ's: good is good,
even if it is not I who do it. Cf. note on Luke 9:49-50.
[The note on Luke 9:49-50 states:
49-50. Our Lord corrects the exclusivist and intolerant attitude of the Apostles.
St Paul later learned this lesson, as we can see from what he wrote during his
imprisonment in Rome: "Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but
others from good will [...]. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pre-
tense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice" (Philippians 1:15, 18).
"Rejoice, when you see others working in good apostolic activities. And ask God
to grant them abundant grace and that they may respond to that grace. Then,
you, on your way: convince yourself that it's the only way for you" ([St. J. Escriva,
"The Way", 965).]
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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].