2024 Reflections

(Posted from latest to oldest articles.)

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Prophetic Opposition (15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The book of Amos presents the prophecies of a man who was called by God to declare God’s judgments on the northern kingdom of Israel for their many sins. We can date the events of the book to around 762 B.C., based on a reference to an earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1, as well as the mention of kings Uzziah and Jeroboam II. After a brief indictment of the surrounding nations in the first two chapters, most of the rest of the book details their offenses against the Law, and how their kingdom was about to come to an end because of them, an end which is recorded in 2 Kings 17.

Israel’s king and priestly class did not take kindly to Amos’ warnings. In our reading, we see the priest Amaziah telling Amos to cease declaring judgments on Israel and king Jeroboam II. Amos’ reply shows that he is no mere prophet for hire, but was appointed directly by God. As such, he is obligated to convey God’s message, and to attempt to silence him is to go against God Himself.

As punishment to Amaziah for his opposition, he declares the following judgment against him:

“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

Therefore thus says the Lord:

‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’” (Amos 7:16-17)

This reading teaches us that those who speak God’s truth to a society that refuses to heed it can expect opposition. This has been true of every age, which is why Jesus said “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household” (Mark 6:4). Similarly, Christians who speak God’s truth today can expect similar opposition. We will be called judgmental or bigoted for standing for the truth. However, we should follow the example set by Amos, and not cease to speak God’s word under pressure, but continue to stand for what is right.

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Israel’s Rebellion (14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The book of Ezekiel chronicles the prophet Ezekiel’s calling to preach to the Kingdom of Judah during the final stage of their history, just prior to their final fall at the hands of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The reason for this fall, as the book explains, is that Judah had abandoned God’s law, embraced the idolatrous practices of the nations around them (including sacrificing their children to Molech), and placed their trust in their alliances with foreign powers such as Egypt, rather than God. These same problems afflicted the northern kingdom of Israel, which had fallen back in 722 BC under the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Now Judah, was about to fall to the same mistake.

 

However, God was not about to simply let them go their own way. Before inflicting His punishment, He first warns the people to repent of their sins by sending them prophets. Ezekiel was one of the last of the pre-exilic prophets, whose job it was to give Judah its final warning before their inevitable punishment overcame them. He is elsewhere likened to a watchman whose task is to warn of impending danger, and all who fail to heed the warning are responsible for their own lives (Ezekiel 33:1-9). The purpose of this is so that Judah would have no excuse for failing to obey God. As the final verse indicates, regardless of whether they obey or not, they cannot feign ignorance, as God’s command to repent was made clear to them.

From this, we learn that God always gives sufficient warning to people when they are going astray from Him. When God judges individuals or nations for their sin, they cannot feign ignorance, as they are accountable to what they know, either from natural revelation, or from explicit written revelation. But the sin is greater on the part of those who have greater revelation from God. As Jesus warned the Jewish cities He preached in, their lot would be worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because they heard God’s word directly from Him, and still they rejected it (Matthew 11:20-24). Likewise, we are under greater judgment if we turn our backs from what we know, since we have no excuse.

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Life, Death, and Immortality (13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Of all the books in the Old Testament, the book of Wisdom has the most extended discussion of the nature of life, death, and the afterlife. It teaches that death was not an original part of God’s created order, but is a consequence of human sin, which in turn was spurred by “the devil’s envy.”

Nevertheless, despite our mortality, we see here a promise of eternal life when it states that “righteousness is immortal” and “God made him in the image of his own eternity.” We also see this in the following passage, where it states that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and only appear to have perished (Wisdom 3:1-9). Few other places in the Old Testament provide us with such a glimpse of the afterlife. For example, we read in Job:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

and after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see on my side,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)

Likewise, the book of Daniel contains this affirmation:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2-3)

All of this is connected to the mysterious figure mentioned in Wisdom 2:12-20, who calls himself God’s child, and is persecuted by the wicked. It is not altogether clear whom the original author had in mind when he wrote this, but later generations of readers could not help but notice the similarity in language to Isaiah 53, which is the clearest Messianic passage in the Old Testament, and the most oft-quoted in the New. Thus, interpreters see here a foretelling of Christ. In this light, we see that Christ is the one who makes eternal life available to all who believe in Him.

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God and Evil (12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The book of Job is of great interest to readers who are interested to know what the Bible has to say about the Problem of Evil. In chapters 38-41, we see God’s response to Job’s questions as to why He allowed suffering to happen to him. God’s response is essentially to inform Job that he is speaking in ignorance, and rather than giving a straight answer to his question, responds with questions of his own. The implication behind the questions is that Job, as a fallible human being, is incapable of comprehending the grand scheme of things, that God does not need to explain to him why things happened the way they did, and that he would not be able to understand anyway.

From this narrative, we learn three things about God in relation to the Problem of Evil: First, God does not need to give us an explanation. As our Creator, He owes us nothing. Furthermore, we would not be able to fully comprehend God’s explanation even if He were to give it, and regardless of whether or not we can comprehend it, there will always be some who will reject such explanations out of hand.

Second, God is infinitely wiser than us. Even if the full explanation lies beyond our grasp, we can be assured that nothing happens randomly or capriciously. God allows everything to happen for a reason, and He uses all of it to accomplish His plans and bring about the greater good. Nobody expressed this greater than St. Paul, who praises God for the infinite wisdom of His plans:

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him,

to receive a gift in return?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

And finally, even if we are unable to comprehend the full reasons as to why God allows evil, we must nevertheless trust that His plans are good. The Bible teaches us that whatever momentary suffering we may suffer will bring about good for us and contribute to our salvation (Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). The important thing is that we do not lose sight of this, to continue to remain faithful to God in all circumstances, and if we ever find ourselves adopting an attitude of impatience or questioning God, to be like Job and repent (Job 42:1-6).

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The Plant (11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The Book of Ezekiel chronicles the very end of the First Temple period, just before the Judean monarchy was brought to an end by Babylon. Many of Ezekiel’s prophecies are criticisms of Judah’s leadership and religious establishment, who were neglecting the law through idolatry and injustice, as well as trusting in political alliances rather than God to safeguard their nation. Chapter 17 in particular presents a criticism of king Zedekiah’s decision to rely on their alliance with Egypt to break free from vassalage with Babylon, presenting this not only as rebellion against Babylon, but against God Himself, who allowed them to fall into Babylon’s grip:

“But he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, in order that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape? As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king resides who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with him he broke—in Babylon he shall die. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, when ramps are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives. Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, because he gave his hand and yet did all these things, he shall not escape.” (Ezekiel 18:15-18)

And yet, despite this judgment, God is prepared to make good come out of bad. In verses 22-24, we get this cryptic allegory of a sprig being taken from a cedar and planted on a mountain. Cedar trees are often used as a symbol for Israel (e.g. Numbers 24:6). This image calls to mind Isaiah 11, which speaks of the shoot springing forth from the stump of Jesse (referring to the Davidic dynasty). The sprig then grows into a great cedar tree, which becomes a shelter for all manner of beasts and birds. This is similar in imagery to Daniel 2:34-35, which speaks of a stone that becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. The stone in this vision represent God’s Kingdom, which Christ will cause to grow among every nation and tribe.

One also cannot fail to see the parallel between this and the parable of the mustard seed found in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 4:26-34). A very similar image is given, with the main difference being the type of plant used. From this, we can infer that the passage in Ezekiel is a Messianic prophecy, which foretells how God will take one from the house of David who will bless the whole world, and usher in the Kingdom of God. We see the fulfillment of this prophecy when Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom, which has been growing and spreading throughout the world since Pentecost, and will be finally consummated at the Second Coming.

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The First Gospel (10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The Fall of humanity was an occasion of great sorrow, for from it come all the evils of this world. Wars, oppressions, and death itself, all come to us because of that primordial transgression. Yet even in this tragedy, God gives a signal of hope that all will be made right. This comes in Genesis 3:15, which is the first declaration of the Gospel. The Catechism tells us about the significance of this passage:

“After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall. This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.” (CCC 410)

How this is fulfilled can be seen in salvation history: God chooses a people for Himself, through whom He will bring blessing to the nations through the coming of a Messiah (Genesis 12:1-3). Out of that nation, God selects a young Jewish girl named Mary, who gives her “yes” to the angel Gabriel and then gives birth to Jesus (Luke 1:26-36). St. Paul tells us that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, Satan and the powers of this world are defeated and put to shame (Colossians 2:15). Satan is thus crushed in two senses: First by Mary, when she consents to become the mother of our Saviour, and after that by Jesus, when He triumphs over Satan on the Cross. As the Catechism points out:

“The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the ‘New Adam’ who, because he ‘became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,’ makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the ‘new Eve.’ Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (CCC 411)

But there is a third sense in which the Serpent is crushed. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, He establishes His Church out of redeemed men and women of every nation. To this Church, Paul writes: “The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). This means we are in constant battle against Satan. Whenever the Gospel is preached and sinners are saved, we gain a small victory against him. But the final victory will come at the end of time, when Christ returns and vanquishes Satan for good. When He does, we will be right alongside Him and achieve victory with Him.

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The Blood of the Covenant (Corpus Christi Sunday)
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After their escape from Egypt, the second half of Exodus recounts how God established the Mosaic Covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai. The Old Testament reading concludes a section where the Israelites receive their first set of laws, and undergo a sacrificial ceremony where they vow uphold all of the laws that God has enjoined on them.

As part of this ceremony, oxen were sacrificed as peace offerings. Moses took the blood of these oxen and sprinkled the people with it. This served to remind the people that they owed their entire lives to God. It is therefore fitting that they give back to Him a part of what He has given them by sacrifice.

There was more to this ceremony, however. The sprinkling of the blood also sacramentally bound the people to God. From that point forward, they were part of the Mosaic Covenant, and all of the promised blessings and curses attached to it were applied to them. If they obey, God will provide abundantly to them, but if they disobey, God will make them like the animals they have slaughtered, as the prophet Jeremiah declares: “And those who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make like the calf when they cut it in two and passed between its parts” (Jeremiah 34:18).

In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews looks back at this ceremony and notes how in the Old Covenant, nearly everything was purified with blood, and how without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). The rest of Hebrews 9-10 explains how the Mosaic Covenant was merely provisional, and was always meant to point forward to something greater than itself. In particular, it pointed forward to the New Covenant, which was inaugurated through the blood of Christ.

Thus, every bloody sacrifice that we read of in the Old Testament serves as a type that pointed towards Him. His sacrifice cleanses us of our sins and brings us into the New Covenant, and in the Eucharist, that same sacrifice and its benefits are mystically made present once again. As we commemorate the Feast of Corpus Christi, we can look back at these Old Testament stories and see how God was preparing to bring this to us all along.

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The One True God (Trinity Sunday)

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Our Old Testament reading comes from the historical section of the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses recounts to the people of Israel how God led their fathers out of Egypt in the Exodus. Through the miracles that God wrought, He showed how the gods of the Egyptians were completely impotent, and not gods at all. He further shows Himself by many wonders to be the one true God and how the gods of all the other nations were nothing but idols. All of this leads to the affirmation of His uniqueness, found in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Yet there is more to the nature of the one God than is immediately obvious to a surface reading of the text. We learn in many other places that God can appear to be two persons at once, such as in Genesis 19:24. We also read of a being that is described as an angel, yet also bears the name of Yahweh (Exodus 23:20-21). Later on, we find a description of Wisdom in Proverbs 8:22-23, where Wisdom is presented as co-Creator with God.¹ For this reason, some Jews came to see God as two persons, a concept that came to be known as “Two Powers in Heaven.”² Although this tradition was suppressed in later Judaism, it is a testament to the presence of this idea in the Hebrew Bible.

We have the most explicit presentation of this idea in the New Testament. Here, we see Jesus presented as divine through His words, works and titles. Most significant for our understanding of Deuteronomy, however, is an enigmatic reading in Jude 5. There it states: “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”³

If we take this passage at face value, it teaches us that the God whom Moses describes as saving Israel out of Egypt was none other than Christ Himself. Even before His Incarnation, He was already at work, redeeming a people for Himself, in preparation for when He would someday come into their midst.

Thus, an early hint of God’s triune nature emerges from a close study of these passages put together. This Trinity Sunday, let us meditate upon how God reveals His true nature through the Sacred Scriptures.

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From Babel to Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday)

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Those who attend both the Saturday evening and Sunday Masses during Pentecost may notice that the first reading is different in both. On Saturday evening, the story of Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is read, while the Pentecost narrative from Acts 2 is read on Sunday. The use of two different readings is significant once one uncovers the connection between both.

In the Babel story, the people construct a tower (known in ancient times as a Ziggurat), which they believe will enable them to reach God directly. They also hope by this to create a name for themselves. God, seeing the worldly ambition and wicked intentions behind this plan, frustrates the building of the tower by making the builders unable to understand one another. Whereas before they all spoke one common language, afterwards they no longer had this common language.* Thus, they were unable to continue working towards this tower, and dispersed into different nations.

Fast forward the Pentecost, and we see the Holy Spirit granting Jesus’ disciples the ability to speak different languages, in accordance with Joel 2:28-32, where God declares that He will send His Spirit upon all flesh. This gift enables them to speak to all the different nations assembled in Jerusalem for the feast. They are all able to understand the disciples’ preaching, and this causes the Gospel to spread throughout the world, uniting believers into one body from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).

Pentecost, therefore, is a reversal of Babel. At Babel, God divides the people into different nations by confusing their language. At Pentecost, God uses the miraculous imparting of languages to unite the different nations into one people: His Church. Unlike at Babel, the Church is not united by any earthly idea or thing, but by the Holy Spirit. This task of uniting the nations will continue until, in the words of Revelation, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 11:5)

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Ascended (Feast of the Ascension)

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Forty days after the Resurrection, we celebrate Christ’s ascension into Heaven. Before He died, Christ told His disciples in advance that He would ascend up into Heaven, and from there send the Holy Spirit to them (John 16:5-16). On Ascension Thursday, Jesus fulfills the first half of what He promised, and ten days from hence, He fulfills the second half of that promise at Pentecost Sunday.

From Heaven, Christ continually intercedes for us before God the Father. Through His intercession, those who are redeemed have full access to God, and are continually being sanctified. As Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” All good things we receive from the Father come through this intercession.

 

Christ will not always remain in Heaven however, as He will someday come back down to earth to defeat Satan one final time, and institute the New Jerusalem. As the angels declared to the disciples in the reading, Jesus “will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) When He returns, those who placed their hope and faith in Him will be vindicated, and will be set free from all pain and suffering: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

 

As believers, we have hope in Christ for the present, because of His continual intercession for us, as well as for the future, because of His promise to come again in glory. We should never waver in this hope, but to keep it in the forefront of our minds at all times.

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Gospel for all Nations (Sixth Sunday of Easter)

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This passage of Acts marks the first major wave of conversion of Gentiles to the Christian faith. Prior to meeting with Cornelius, St. Peter had a vision wherein several non-kosher animals were presented to him, from which he was instructed to eat. Upon refusing on the grounds that they were ritually unclean, the Lord said to him, “do not call unclean what I have called clean.” This happened three times until men sent by Cornelius appeared at his doorstep (Acts 10:9-23).

At this point Peter realized that under the New Covenant, Gentiles were not to be excluded, but incorporated into God’s people just as the Jews had been. He connects this to the vision he saw before in Acts 10:28, where he says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.” Thus, he would declare that God shows no partiality, favouring one nation over another, but extends salvation in Christ to everyone regardless of social class or ethnic origin (vv. 34-35). After preaching about the saving work of Christ, we see the Holy Spirit coming down upon all the Gentiles in the room, who were subsequently baptized (vv. 44-48).

This move of the Spirit marked the beginning of the spread of the Gospel beyond the confines of Judea and Samaria. God’s will is that all men may be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), and that the Gospel should spread to all the ends of the earth before the end comes (Matt 24:14). The apostles would later go out throughout the world to such far off places as Rome, India, Arabia and Ethiopia. But it all begins with the conversion of Cornelius and his men.

Those of us who are Gentile believers are recipients of this move of the Gospel to the nations. We should be ever grateful to God for having sent His Son to save us, and do what we can to help spread the Gospel to all nations and peoples.

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Paul the Preacher (5^th Sunday of Easter)

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This week’s Acts reading comes at the heels of St. Paul’s conversion, which is describe for us in Acts 9:1-20. In verses 21-25, we see how right after Saul¹ is baptized, he wastes no time in beginning to proclaim the same Messiah whom he formerly rejected, using his immense scriptural learning to bear in defending his newfound faith, to the astonishment and chagrin of his former colleagues.

Three years later (according to the chronology in Gal. 1:18), Saul comes to Jerusalem in order to meet with the apostles. What happened in the intervening period is unknown to us, but he probably spent that time reflecting upon his conversion and growing in understanding his newfound faith to ensure that he had an accurate knowledge of it. He is seen with suspicion by the disciples at first, which was understandable given his past as an enemy of the Christians. Perhaps they thought his conversion was insincere, or that he was there to spy upon the Jerusalem church. It is only after St. Barnabas speaks on his behalf that he is accepted as part of the community (in line with Barnabas’ reputation as the “son of encouragement”). He then proceeds to preach to the Hellenists in Jerusalem—the very same people who had stoned St. Stephen to death before him in Acts 6-7—showing how the evangelistic witness to that community could not be stopped even by the death of the first martyr.

Verse 31 summarizes the growth of the Church at this time, how believers came from throughout Palestine and walked in the fear of the Lord. The conversion of a notorious enemy of the faith no doubt spurred on greater missionary zeal, and caused many Jews who were otherwise suspicious of the Gospel to become receptive to it. This shows us how God can turn even a great persecutor into a great promoter, or a great sinner into a great saint, and advance His Kingdom through them. We should pray that God may raise us up to be like St. Paul, boldly proclaiming the Gospel to all around us and leading others to eternal life.

J. Luis Dizon

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The Cornerstone (4th Sunday of Easter)

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This week’s reading from Acts continues the previous reading wherein Sts. Peter and John healed the lame beggar at the temple, on which occasion they declared the Gospel of Jesus (Acts 3). This prompted the temple police to arrest them, after which they are interrogated as to by what authority they were healing and preaching in the Temple (Acts 4:1-7).

Peter’s reply was that they were able to heal the beggar by the power of Jesus Christ, whom the rulers of the people had rejected. He then identifies Jesus as the “Cornerstone” which the builders rejected (v. 10), which is an allusion to Psalm 118:22. The cornerstone referred to the stone which held the walls of a building together, making it absolutely foundational. St. Paul would later refer to the Church as being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). Despite their claim to mediate access to God via the Temple, since the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus, they proved themselves to be out of step with God’s will.

Peter then declares that Christ alone provides salvation to all mankind, and that there is no other name by which we may be saved (v. 12). This calls to mind Jesus’ declaration in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” This statement excludes there being any other way to God apart from Christ, as only He could provide a perfect atonement for sins.

This was a provocative statement, as it went against the pluralism of the Roman world. It remains provocative today, as our multicultural society abhors any declaration of exclusive truth. However, since this teaching comes from Christ Himself, we cannot deny or water it down. We must remain firm in it just as the original apostles did, and seek the conversion of all those who do not yet know the Saviour.

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St. Peter’s sermon in Acts 3 comes right after his healing of the lame beggar in front of the Jerusalem temple gate. He declared that the man was healed by the power of Christ Jesus (v. 16), who had been crucified by the same people to whom he was preaching not that long ago.

In his sermon, he holds the Jerusalem crowd responsible for rejecting their Messiah and handing Him over to be crucified.¹ He refers to Jesus as the “Author or Life,” which is both an affirmation that He is God, as well as a declaration that it is through faith in Christ that one may receive eternal life. Perhaps he is here recalling Christ’s words in the upper room: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He proves that Christ is truly their Saviour from the fact that 1) the Old Testament prophets foretold His suffering beforehand, and 2) they were witnesses to this fulfillment.

Despite their guilt in crucifying Jesus, however, they are not beyond redemption. Peter tells the crowd that they may still receive forgiveness and eternal life if they repent and believe upon that same Christ whom they had previously rejected. If they do this, he declares, their sins will be wiped away. While we are not told how many in that crowd came to faith, we know that the Church continued to grow after that, which means his words must have had an impact on the crowd.

Peter’s message gives hope to all of us because it shows that, no matter how many times we sin and betray Christ, forgiveness is offered to us. If we confess and turn away from our sins, St. John tells us, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all uncleanness (1 John 1:9). Let us, then, make use of this opportunity to avail ourselves of God’s mercy.

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Witnesses of the Lord (1^st Sunday of Easter)

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During the Easter Season, the first reading for Sundays is taken from the book of Acts rather than the Old Testament. Acts chronicles the life of the early church, and how Christianity spread from its birthplace in Jerusalem to the rest of the known world, culminating in St. Paul’s voyage to Rome.

In our reading, St. Peter is preaching regarding the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus. Twice, he appeals to the fact that he and the Apostles were witnesses to these things. He says this to emphasize the fact that he is not merely passing on something that he heard from others, but experienced directly. As he writes in one of his epistles, “we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).

Likewise, St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, recounts how when Jesus was raised from the dead, “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8).

By appealing to eyewitness testimony, the Apostles assure us that the Resurrection is not a myth, or hearsay. Rather, it is a real historical event that took place in a definite place and time. And because it is a real event, it has real consequences for our lives. Paul teaches us that our eternal life depends on whether we confess and live by the reality of the Resurrection: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

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The Vindication of the Servant (Palm Sunday)

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This reading is the third of four Servant Songs that are in the book of Isaiah (the other three are in 42:1-7, 49:1-12, and 52:13-53:12). Here, rather than the Servant being addressed by God, it is the Servant speaking directly. In the first half of the reading, he is said to be the obedient servant who does not rebel against God, and has a knowledgeable tongue to be able to teach and exhort others. Thus, the servant is also a teacher of righteousness for God’s people.

When we get to the second half of the reading, however, the tenor of the song shifts, and now the Servant speaks of being persecuted by those around him for what he teaches to them. Through this persecution, however, he retains hope that he will be vindicated by God. Verse 7 bears this out, as well as the next two verses immediately after this reading:

He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;

who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;

the moth will eat them up. (Isaiah 50:8-9)

This servant song summarizes the experience of Jesus throughout Holy Week. The week begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate today as Palm Sunday. He spends the next few days teaching in the Temple, which causes the Pharisees and Sadducees to turn against Him and plot His death. That plot will eventually culminate in the events of Good Friday. Jesus is aware that all this would happen, because He already predicted it would happen beforehand (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:17-19)

Through all of Jesus’ experiences in Passion Week, He knows that He will ultimately be vindicated by His Father, just as the Servant Song in Isaiah says. This certain knowledge, in addition to His desire to save us, is why He is able to accept the Father’s will: “not my will but Yours be done.” (Matthew 26:39).

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The New Covenant (5^th Sunday of Lent)

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In past readings, we were introduced to a succession of covenants that God made with important individuals, after whom each covenant was named. These included the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant. We see that these covenants are the means by which God stays united to His people, which is why we read the oft-repeated refrain that they will be God’s people, and He will be their God (e.g. Genesis 17:7, Exodus 6:7, etc.). Each covenant included promises and conditions that needed to be met, whether it was a ritual such as circumcision, or the keeping of certain laws. Whenever a new covenant was established, it built on the previous one, and revealed God’s plans in greater detail.

The ultimate fufillment of God’s plans however, comes through what is known as the “New Covenant.” This covenant is hinted at in numerous places in the Old Testament, and is referred to by many names, but Jeremiah 31 is the only place where it is explicitly called as such. He declare his intention to establish this new covenant even while castigating His people for breaking the terms of the one He established with them at Sinai. This new covenant would differ from the old one in that it would focus more on what is internal, rather than what is external. Hence, God declares that He will inscribe His laws in people’s hearts, and they will all come to know Him.

We see this covenant inaugurated by Jesus in the Gospels. The emphasis on the internal condition of the heart is revealed to us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The promise that God would teach us His ways directly is fulfilled through the coming of the Holy Spirit, who teaches us all things (John 14-16). Finally, the old covenant signs are replaced with the new covenant sacraments, particularly Baptism (through which a person enters into the covenant), and the Eucharist (through which the benefits of the covenant are communicated). It is for this reason that when Jesus institutes the Eucharist, He refers to the cup as the “blood of the covenant” (cf. Matthew 26:28). All this comes through Christ, who is the mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15, 12:24).

As people of the New Covenant, we who are Christians are heirs to a greater promise than what the previous covenants contain. Through our worship, we thank God for these blessings. Through the sacraments, we partake of their benefits. And through evangelization, we call upon others to believe in Christ and thus be included in the New Covenant, with all of its blessings.

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Exile and Return (4^th Sunday of Lent)

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The history of the divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah is a sad tale of how God’s chosen people broke the Covenant that God made with them at Mt. Sinai, and thus incurred the curses that He threatened would befall covenant breakers (Deuteronomy 28). Despite God warning them through His prophets, the people did not listen, but instead persecuted and even killed many of the prophets.

Eventually, Israel succumbed to its fate when the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered them in 721 BC. Judah managed to survive somewhat longer, with God’s blessings occasionally coming upon them when righteous kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah came upon the throne, but they too ultimately met the same fate under the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 587 BC, and their exile would last for seventy years. Scripture makes clear that these were no mere geopolitical events, but rather Assyria and Babylon were the instruments of God’s wrath against His wayward people.

However, God’s chastisement would not last forever. Eventually, the Jews learned their lesson, and resolved to follow God’s Law more stringently. Eventually, their deliverance would come when Babylon was overthrown by the Median Empire, which was then replaced by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. King Cyrus the Great was known for his policy of religious tolerance, and largely respected the beliefs of his subject peoples, even if he did not hold to those beliefs himself. Rightly then does Isaiah present Cyrus as God’s shepherd and anointed one (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1). God in his providence used his tolerance to bring the Jews back to their land so that they could rebuild their temple, the story of which is recorded for us in Ezra-Nehemiah, as well as Esther.

This is instructive for us today, because we see how seriously God takes covenant breaking. If we take His commandments lightly, a similar chastisement will come upon us. On the other hand, however, if we repent and resolve to live according to His precepts, we will experience deliverance.

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The Covenant Code (3^rd Sunday of Lent)

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When God rescued Israel out of slavery in Egypt, He brought them to Mt. Sinai, where He committed Himself in a covenant to constitute them as His chosen people on earth. In return, Israel was expected to listen to God’s voice and do as He says. We see this when God through Moses tells the people:

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites. (Exodus 19:4-6)

As part of the stipulation for this covenant, God gave them a law code that they were expected to abide by, and all the covenant blessings were conditional upon their keeping it. This law was summarized in what is known as the Ten Commandments. This Law became central to the identity of this new nation as a covenant people. As Scott Hahn points out, these commandments “gave this ragtag outfit of twelve loosely knit tribes a new identity. The Decalogue revealed to Israel a radically new way of living under the lordship of Yahweh.”¹ So central was this Law to Israelite life that the stone tablets containing them were deposited in the Ark of the Covenant and kept in the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:16).

Even though we are under the New Covenant, this law continues to inform our moral life. As Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19).

Thus, we see in the New Testament that almost all these commandments are restated in some form or another, testifying to their enduring relevance.² As St. Paul tells us: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (Romans 3:31).

Most importantly, this Law serves as the teacher that leads us to Christ, as St. Paul states in Galatians 3:24. Through the Law, we realize our sin and thus our need for a Saviour. Thus, Law and Gospel come together to produce a complete picture of God’s story of how He saves us.

Notes

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The Binding of Isaac (2^nd Sunday of Lent)

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The binding of Isaac is one of the most significant events in the Bible’s redemptive history. It is pivotal because it marks Abraham’s faithfulness to God’s covenant promises, wherein God promises to bless him and his progeny, and make them as numerous as the sand and the stars (Genesis 12, 15 and 17). We see here that God reaffirms those promises and adds the additional detail that his descendants shall be triumphant over their enemies.

This episode also figures prominently in the New Testament, which comments upon it as a sign of his faithfulness. Hebrews, for example tells us that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because he knew that if God was able to give him Isaac in his old age, He would also be able to give Isaac back to him even after he was sacrificed:

By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom he had been told, “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Likewise, St. James uses Abraham’s act of obedience as an example of how man is justified by works and not by faith alone:

Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:20-24)

Finally, the Binding of Isaac is significant for Christians because it prefigures the sacrifice of Christ. Although the New Testament does not explicitly make this connection, it appears in the writings of the early church fathers and has been the standard Christian interpretation ever since. The ram which is found stuck in the thicket is a type of Christ, and just as the ram is sacrificed that Isaac may live, Jesus gives His life that we may live. As St. Paul declares in the epistle reading: "He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (Romans 8:32)

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The Noahic Covenant (1st Sunday of Lent)

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In the aftermath of the Flood story in Genesis, God establishes a covenant with Noah. This covenant is one of the first of several covenants that God “cuts” with humans in the Biblical story (after the one with Adam and Eve). A covenant can basically be defined as “a kinship bond between two parties, with conditions or obligations, established by an oath or its equivalent.”¹ It differs from a contract in that, “unlike most contracts, covenants are not merely civil but sacred bonds, in which an oath is employed to call on God... to enforce the covenant obligations.”²

In this case, since Noah is the progenitor of all the people who would come after him, the covenant with him may be said to be a universal covenant that applies to all humanity. Various allowances, such as the eating of meat, and the use of capital punishment against murder, are given herein. The latter is particularly noteworthy, since it reflects the gravity with which God regards the taking of human life, and sees it as an assault on the image in which He created human beings.

Later Jewish tradition would expand upon this covenant and posit seven “Noahide Laws” that all humans, whether Jew or Gentile, are bound to obey. While such traditions probably do not go back to Noah, they do reflect the importance of Noah as a representative of all humanity, just as Adam was before him.

Most significantly, God sets his bow down as a reminder that He would never again flood the world. Although commonly understood to be a rainbow, the word for bow (qeshet) denotes a warbow. This signifies that God is laying down His arms, as it were, in making His promise. Although the rainbow is often misused as a symbol in our day, its significance as a reminder of God’s promise to never flood the world again remains valid, and we as Christians must never forget that vital truth. As St. Peter reminds us, God is delaying His judgment to allow us more time to repent, for God does not wish any to perish, but that all may repent. (2 Peter 3:9)

Notes

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Ritual and Moral Purity (6th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Leviticus contains extensive instructions for what to do if a person contracts a certain skin disease. Although the disease in question has traditionally been identified as leprosy, the instructions are meant to be applicable to a wide variety of skin diseases, including leprosy.¹

While the instructions to isolate the infected person may have had some medical benefits, in terms of preventing the spread of such diseases, the primary concern of this passage is not health, but ritual cleanliness. Skin diseases were associated with death, and just as contact with a dead body renders one unfit to come near the tabernacle (Numbers 19:11-13), so does the presence of skin disease. It is also notable that in many Bible passages, the Lord inflicts skin disease as a punishment for transgression, so there is an association with sinfulness as well, although not everyone who contracts such a disease necessarily did so because of something they did.

Although we no longer need to be outwardly clean in order to come to God in the New Covenant, the need to be ritually pure in the Old Testament provides a picture of the need to be morally pure, which applies in all ages. We know that coming to the Lord’s table with sin in our lives can lead to judgment and even death, as St. Paul teaches us (1 Corinthians 11:27-31). Even if we no longer need to be concerned about our outward purity, we still need to be inwardly pure in order to have access to God via the Eucharist.

Finally, the association of skin disease with one’s moral status puts a new dimension to the Gospel reading where Jesus heals the leper (Mark 1:40-45). Jesus is not just restoring his health, but also his access to the temple. This thus becomes a reflection of how Jesus through His atoning work grants us access to God. Similarly, although sin may make us unfit to receive our Lord, we can restore that fitness if we repent and turn back to Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

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Hope Amid Suffering (5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

The book of Job relates the story of how Job copes with suffering after losing everything and being afflicted with grievous illness. It is particularly concerned with the problem of evil. Job’s fate shows us how God permits evil in order to accomplish His plans and bring about the greater good. However, because our perspective is limited, we often do not see what that greater good might be. Thus, Job only sees the misery afflicting him at present. He muses on the reality of suffering, and how every person must experience it at some point in their life, albeit in varying degrees. For him, life is a never ending series of troubles.

And yet, Job does not lose hope. Later in the book, he declares that he will someday see God in the flesh after he dies. Here, we see Job affirming the Resurrection of the dead. Although this concept is not fully fleshed out in the Old Testament, we do see the seeds of the belief here:

“O that my words were written down!

O that they were inscribed in a book!

O that with an iron pen and with lead

they were engraved on a rock forever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

and after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see on my side,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:23-27)

When we get to the New Testament, this teaching is fleshed out further. Jesus during His earthly ministry healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead, as the Gospel shows. However, this is only a prelude to the greatest act of restoration, which is the Resurrection of the dead. Paul reminds us that our momentary afflictions are preparing us for an eternal glory beyond comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17). When it arrives, Scripture declares, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and suffering will be no more (Revelation 21:4).

This is the hope that we as believers hold on to, that despite our present sufferings, we will someday be liberated from it all, and spend eternity with God.

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The Prophetic Word (4th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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A prophet is someone whom the Lord has anointed to speak His revelation. Prophecy is usually associated with predicting the future, although not all prophecy concerns the future. Prophecy is how we come to know God’s will, as Scripture tells us, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7).

This OT passage from Deuteronomy concerns the sending of a prophet to the people of Israel. After this, God gives a criterion for how one can tell a true prophet from a false prophet. Such a criterion is necessary as many would falsely claim to be a prophet throughout history, as Jesus warns us in the Gospels (Mark 13:22), and as the passage of subsequent history shows us. The criterion is that whatever the prophet speaks will come to pass, and nothing that he says will fail to materialize:

You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

Although God has sent many prophets throughout history who can conceivably fit the description given here, one future prophet is envisioned who embodies the prophetic charism more greatly than all the rest. In the book of Acts, both St. Peter (Acts 3:22) and St. Stephen (Acts 7:37) apply this passage of Deuteronomy to Jesus Christ, and indeed, Jesus was recognized as a prophet during His lifetime (John 6:14). But his role is not reducible to that of a prophet only, as He is also a priest and a king. Nevertheless, His words and actions can be seen as prophetic revelation, in the sense that they fully reveal to us the will of God. As Hebrews tells us:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Thus, if we want to know how we should live, and what God wants us to know, we can look to Jesus’ words and actions for guidance.

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Being a Prophetic Voice (3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Jonah is best known for his refusal to preach to the people of Nineveh, and his subsequently being swallowed by a large fish while trying to escape. In Jonah 3-4, he was asked again to preach to the Ninevites, and this time he reluctantly accepted. This reading tells us that he preached in the city for three days, and they listened and repented, so God spared them. The rest of the chapter relates to us the measures that the inhabitants of the city took:

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:6-10)

The next chapter tells us that Jonah was upset at God for this, and that Jonah knew all along that this would be the result. His reluctance to preach to the Ninevites was due to his national pride (after all, the Assyrians were subjugators of the Israelites), and his reluctance to see them come to repentance. God’s response shows us that He desired to show mercy upon all nations, not just Israel. This would find fuller expression in the New Covenant, when God creates a new people, the Church, comprised of every nation, tribe and tongue.

This story also teaches us the importance of the faithful acting as God’s prophetic voice to the world. This is why this passage is connected to our Gospel reading (Mark 1:14-20). Both are about God raising up men lead others to true faith. All the faithful–clergy and laity–have this prophetic call as God’s Church. Although each believer lives under different circumstances, we all have the opportunity and obligation to be a prophetic witness to the world through our words and actions. We must point others to Christ, and urge them to repent and believe.

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Hearing God’s Voice (2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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In Hebrew, Samuel’s name means “God heard” (Shmu’ El). His name is a reference to the fact that his birth came about as a result of God listening to the supplications of his mother, Hannah, who had been barren for many years (the story is recounted in 1 Samuel 1-2). As thanks for hearing her prayer, Hannah dedicated Samuel to God, and Samuel was raised in the house of God by Eli the priest.

Thus, Samuel grew up surrounded by holy things and holy people. Despite this, he did not immediately know the Lord. It was only when Eli informed him that the voice he was hearing was the Lord’s that he came to know God and receive his commission as a prophet. This teaches us that it is important to have more spiritually aware people in our lives to attune us to God’s voice, so that we can more readily recognize Him when He calls out to us. It also teaches us that simply being around religious places and people does not guarantee a relationship with God. While those things help, ultimately we have to form that relationship through the exercise of our own will.

The pairing of 1 Samuel 3 with John 1:35-42 as our Gospel reading is also significant, as the parallels between the two are striking. In the Gospel account, Andrew recognizes Jesus’ divine origin immediately, but his brother Simon does not initially do so, and has to be informed by Andrew of this fact. Despite his initial skepticism, Simon would go on to be chosen by Christ as the first leader of the Church, just as Samuel led Israel as the final judge before the monarchy was established. Here, we see that the events of the Old Testament reading serve as a foreshadowing of the event told in the Gospel, making Samuel a type of St. Peter.

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Light to the Nations (Feast of the Epiphany)

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This passage of Isaiah is addressed to the Jews exiled in Babylon. Here, the prophet predicts a future where the Jewish people would be gathered from all of the nations they were scattered in and brought to Zion. Then, the light of Israel would arise and give light to the nations, who would walk in that light, and give homage to Israel.

A partial fulfillment of this passage came when King Cyrus of Persia decreed that the Jews would be allowed to return to their land and rebuild their temple. The glory of Israel would not be seen then, however. After the second temple was built, it lacked the glory even of the first temple, where God Himself had dwelt, in conjunction with the Ark of the Covenant (which Jeremiah had hidden in a secret place, according to 2 Maccabees 2). Thus, the passage would await a fuller fulfillment at the coming of Christ.

Traditionally, the passage has been interpreted as being fulfilled when the Magi came to worship the child Jesus, hence its association with the Epiphany. We can see this from many details in the text. For example, the constant references to light, radiance and rising all point towards the star that shone over Bethlehem. Also, the nations are said to bring gold and frankincense to Israel, which is what we see the Magi bringing to the child Jesus.

The reference to Midian, Ephah and Sheba (which are located in the Arabian peninsula) can also be an indication that some of the Magi originated there. Also, the reference to kings in v. 3 has led to the interpretation that the Magi were kings. It is probable that the Magi had some sort of royal authority in the nations they originated. Whatever the case, it is not hard to see how the coming of the Magi would fulfill this prophecy.

This Old Testament scripture shows us how the events of the Nativity were foretold hundreds of years in advance. Today, we walk in the light of God’s glory in Christ, who is the Light of the World (John 8:12). Just as the Magi were guided by the star during Epiphany, may we also continue to be guided by His light.