Sunday Lectionary: Vocation and Mission

Several years ago when I ran a weekly Bible Study, I would post my commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings. One of my friends who leads a weekly Bible Study is in Washington DC at the moment for the March For Life and has asked me to host the group in her absence.

Fortunately, I already had some notes for this coming Sunday’s readings, but I spent some time updating them in preparation for tonight’s discussion. So, in case you’re interested, here they are…

3rd Week of Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer

Lord, inspire me to read your Scriptures and to meditate upon them day and night. I beg you to give me real understanding of what I need, that I in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet, I know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So I ask that the words of Scripture may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into my heart. Amen.

– Origen of Alexandria (2nd Century)

Introduction

Last week’s Readings focused on God’s call to us. In turn, this week’s Readings focus upon our response to Him, our vocation and mission. Oh yes…and fish.

Having before you many examples of sinners who repented and were saved, be you also earnest in confessing to the Lord, that you may receive pardon for past sins, be made worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the kingdom of heaven with all the saints. 

– St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 386)

In the First Reading we hear of how Jonah (eventually) responded to God’s call and then how the people of Nineveh responded to God through the message of His Prophet.

In the Gospel we hear Jesus’ message: repent and believe for the Kingdom is at hand. He calls four fishermen to come and follow him, simple men who, later when He is gone, will become great pillars in His Church.

Readings

Reading I: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Book Facts:

  • Set in the reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 BC), it was probably written in the post-exilic period, some time between the late 5th to early 4th century BC.
  • Unlike the other Prophets, the book of Jonah is almost entirely narrative, with the exception of the psalm in chapter 2

Jonah is sometimes known as “The Reluctant Prophet”. He did not want to go and preach to the people of Nineveh but did everything he possibly could to get out of his divinely-appointed assignment. In fact, he fled in the opposite direction! However, after his little stay in the belly of a sea creature he undertook the task that God had originally assigned him. The ideogram for Nineveh rather amusingly means “place of fish”. It would appear that the man who was once fish food was to now become a fisherman…

Full Text:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding.

Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

Questions:

  • What is the background to this week’s First Reading? What happened beforehand? Had Jonah wanted this mission?
  • Where was Nineveh? What does this tell us about God?
  • What does it mean to be a prophet?
  • What did Jonah preach? What is the significance of “Forty days”?
  • What is the result of his preaching? What does this tell us about free-will? What is the significance of the people’s actions? What place do these actions have in the liturgical life of the Church?
  • What is God’s response? What does this tell us about God? What does it mean when we say that God “repented”? Surely God does no “evil”?
  • What happens in the story after this? What can we learn from it?
  • When is Jonah mentioned in the New Testament? In what context?

Commentary:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding.

To be a prophet is to speak on behalf of God, rather than necessarily to predict the future. In this case Jonah is doing both – he is delivering a message on behalf of God and telling the Ninevites of a possible future if they continue on their current course.

It is worth noting that Nineveh was not in Israel, but the capital of Assyria, Gentile land.  Assyria had destroyed Israel in 721 B.C. From this we can see that, even in the days of Jonah, Yahweh was concerned with the lives of those outside of His people of Israel.

In the New Testament Christ compares Himself to Jonah when speaking of his Death and Resurrection:

[Jesus] answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. – Matthew 12:39-42

In Jonah we see a “type” of Christ. Not only in Christ’s resurrection, but in the proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

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Sunday School: The Resurrection

EmptyTomb

As Pascha nears we will contemplate the Resurrection, the witness to it and the key arguments against it.

Our Holy Faith teaches us Jesus, suffered, died and rose in accordance with God’s plan. Christ’s entering into our suffering was half of the story. The story of man’s redemption didn’t end with Christ’ suffering and death, even if we choose to focus on His Death as the perfect sacrifice. It ends with Christ’s triumphal Resurrection, the conquering of death, His ascension and His reigning at the right hand of the Father and eventual return as ultimate Victor. This is what motivated the Apostles, disciples and early Christian martyrs to give everything – even to the point of dying to bring even us the full Gospel, the “good news” of His death and resurrection.

So while it’s true that seeing Jesus’ sufferings helps us bear our own, there’s the added boost that we know all this suffering is temporary. All will be made right some day and then we will have joy that we cannot even imagine now. “O Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?” – 1 Corinthians 15:55

God raised Christ up putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in it’s power. It was impossible because He was the righteous God-man and had given himself over in perfect love to God the Father. Not only did Jesus surrender his immortality and die on the cross, he rose with supreme authority over the whole realm of the dead. He burst out of the prison of death, breaking the chains and locks of all those held in captivity and carrying the keys of the prison with him.

Think of the triumphant icon of Christ standing over the gates of Hades and death, gripping Adam’s and Eve’s wrist in one hand while their other is outstretched in supplication. Look closely, you will see little keys and broken locks strewn about in the darkness around a prostate and bound Hades. Each of the keys is the key of death and Hades for each one of us. Hades is not destroyed – it is still there – but its power to bind people is gone. There are no chains, no locked doors. If only we raise our hands in supplication and longing for Jesus Christ, He is there to lift us from the grave. “…By death He trampled death…” we sing the hymn of victory!

Without the bodily resurrection, Christianity is a cruel hoax and our Faith is useless. Christ’s Holy Resurrection is a new experience of grace in the world. It was a completely, stunning, and shocking revelation.

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Sunday Lectionary: Extraordinary Grace

As I said, I’ll still be producing these Lectionary Notes from time to time, as and when we have new people leading the JP2 Group’s Bible Study. This week Rob will be leading for the first time, so here are some notes…

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 30th, 2012

Our Readings this week concern God’s gratuitous gift of His Spirit.

In the First Reading, even though Eldad and Medad were not at the Tent of Meeting, God’s Spirit falls upon them. In the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples not to hinder the work done in His name by others simply because they didn’t belong to their group. Jesus then gives them some warnings, exhorting them to cast off anything which hinders their entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. St. James in our Second Reading is handing out warnings too, especially to the rich.

The Sacraments are the “ordinary” means of God’s grace (although far from “ordinary”!), but God’s grace is not simply restricted to the Sacraments. So, as you go about this week, be on the lookout for God’s “extra-ordinary” grace at work…

grace

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Sunday Lectionary: The deaf will hear

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 9th, 2012

In our First Reading this week Isaiah consoles Israel, promising a time will come when wrongs will be made right, when “the ears of the deaf [will] be cleared” and the dry lands be refreshed. From the very beginning of the Bible, a Saviour was promised, a Messiah who would heal the rupture between man and God. Isaiah’s words find their fulfillment in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading as Jesus restores a man’s hearing, a sign that the long awaited Messiah had finally come…

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Sunday Lectionary: Be doers of the word

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 2nd, 2012

There are a number of themes found in this week’s Readings, but they all centre around remaining in right relationship with God through observance of His Word.

In our First Reading, Moses reminds the people of their obligation to observe what God has commanded. If they do this, then they shall remain in covenant with Him and be light to the other nations. In the Second Reading, St. James exhorts his listeners to Be doers of the word and not hearers only”. Finally, in the Gospel our Lord answers the criticisms of the Pharisees when they complain about his disciples not washing their hands. He responds with a stinging rebuttal, claiming that they “disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition”. He goes on to say to the crowd that “nothing that enters one from outside can defile”. It is what we say and what we do which makes us “unclean”.

This Sunday, as we hear the Word of God proclaimed, do we “humbly welcome” it and allow it to penetrate our lives? Do we act on what we hear or are we “hearers only”? As we renew our covenant with the Lord in the Eucharist, let us commit ourselves to be “doers of His word” and to live lives which reflect the holiness of the Lord.

Does not hearers only

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Sunday Lectionary: The Big Question

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 26th, 2012

The Readings this Sunday ask a basic question: whom do you choose?

In the First Reading, Joshua asks this question of Israel. Whom will they serve? Yahweh or some other god? In the Gospel Reading, after hearing the “hard teaching” of the Lord about His Body and Blood, Jesus asks the Twelve if they wish to leave along with some of the other disciples.  Peter answers the  question in the same way I hope we would all answer: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”.

We have a fundamental choice in life. Do we choose God, or do we choose something or someone else? As we hear God’s Word this week and gather around the altar to “taste and see that the Lord is good”, let us renew our commitment to the Lord and say with Peter We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God”.

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Sunday Lectionary: Are you listening to the words coming out of my mouth?

Once again, in the spirit of regaining more of my free time to engage in other projects, these notes will be fairly terse and to the point…

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 19th, 2012

The Readings this week continue on a similar trajectory to those of recent weeks. In Proverbs we hear how Lady Wisdom has “dressed her meat [and] mixed her wine” and sent out an invitation to all to come eat and drink at her table. In our Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist invites us once again to Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”.  St. Paul continues his moral exhortation to the Ephesians in the Second Reading , commending them to be “filled with the Spirit” rather than wine. Finally, in our Gospel extract, the Lord again affirms that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven” and He promises that whoever eats this bread will live forever”.

Benedict Eucharist

For the last few weeks the Readings have all been about food and drink. Are you hungry yet? Are you spiritually salivating? Are you hungry for holiness? Do you long for the flesh of Christ?

I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was of the seed of David; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life. – St. Ignatius to the Romans, Chapter 7

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