CCC Cross Reference:
2 Cor 11:2 505, 796
Mt 6:7 2608, 2668, 2776; Mt 6:8 443, 2736; Mt 6:9-13 1969, 2759, 2759; Mt 6:9 268, 443; Mt 6:10 2632; Mt 6:11 1165, 2659; Mt 6:12 2845; Mt 6:14-16 2792; Mt 6:14-15 2608, 2841
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Reading 1
2 Cor 11:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me!
Please put up with me.
For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God,
since I betrothed you to one husband
to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,
your thoughts may be corrupted
from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ.
For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached,
or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received
or a different gospel from the one you accepted,
you put up with it well enough.
For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “superapostles.”
Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge;
in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
Did I make a mistake when I humbled myself so that you might be exalted,
because I preached the Gospel of God to you without charge?
I plundered other churches by accepting from them
in order to minister to you.
And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone,
for the brothers who came from Macedonia
supplied my needs.
So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.
By the truth of Christ in me,
this boast of mine shall not be silenced
in the regions of Achaia.
And why? Because I do not love you?
God knows I do!
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 111:1b-2, 3-4, 7-8
R. (7a) Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the Lord,
exquisite in all their delights.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Majesty and glory are his work,
and his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the Lord.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
sure are all his precepts,
Reliable forever and ever,
wrought in truth and equity.
R. Your works, O Lord, are justice and truth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading 2 Corinthians 11:1 – 11
I only wish you were able to tolerate a little foolishness from me. But of course: you are tolerant towards me. You see, the jealousy that I feel for you is God’s own jealousy: I arranged for you to marry Christ so that I might give you away as a chaste virgin to this one husband. But the serpent, with his cunning, seduced Eve, and I am afraid that in the same way your ideas may get corrupted and turned away from simple devotion to Christ. Because any new-comer has only to proclaim a new Jesus, different from the one that we preached, or you have only to receive a new spirit, different from the one you have already received, or a new gospel, different from the one you have already accepted – and you welcome it with open arms. As far as I can tell, these arch-apostles have nothing more than I have. I may not be a polished speechmaker, but as for knowledge, that is a different matter; surely we have made this plain, speaking on every subject in front of all of you.
Or was I wrong, lowering myself so as to lift you high, by preaching the gospel of God to you and taking no fee for it? I was robbing other churches living on them so that I could serve you. When I was with you and ran out of money, I was no burden to anyone; the brothers who came from Macedonia provided me with everything I wanted. I was very careful, and I always shall be, not to be a burden to you in any way, and by Christ’s truth in me, this cause of boasting will never be taken from me in the regions of Achaia. Would I do that if I did not love you? God knows I do.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 110(111):1-4,7-8
Your works, Lord, are justice and truth.
or
Alleluia!
I will thank the Lord with all my heart
in the meeting of the just and their assembly.
Great are the works of the Lord,
to be pondered by all who love them.
Your works, Lord, are justice and truth.
or
Alleluia!
Majestic and glorious his work,
his justice stands firm for ever.
He makes us remember his wonders.
The Lord is compassion and love.
Your works, Lord, are justice and truth.
or
Alleluia!
His works are justice and truth,
his precepts are all of them sure,
standing firm for ever and ever;
they are made in uprightness and truth.
Your works, Lord, are justice and truth.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Matthew 6:7 – 15
Jesus said, ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test,
but save us from the evil one.
‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Thursday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
From: 2 Corinthians 11:1-11
His Zeal
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[1] I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! [2] I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. [3] But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. [4] For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. [5] I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles. [6] Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
He Preached Accepting No Material Support
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[7] Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel without cost to you? [8] I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. [9] And when I was with you and was in want, I did not burden any one, for my needs were supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. [10] As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. [11] And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
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Commentary:
11:1-12:18. In spite of what he has just said, St Paul here goes on to provide an elaborate justification of his conduct. He has a profound distaste for this and throughout the apologia he repeatedly excuses himself (cf. 11:1, 16-18, 21, 23; 12:1, 6, 11); but he feels he has to go through with it because it is the only way he can counter the effects of his enemies' criticism. He opens his heart to the Corinthians to show the sufferings his life as an apostle involves and the wonderful revelations God has deigned to give him; this will make them realize who this man is who first preached the Gospel among them, and they can then compare his credentials with those his attackers.
The whole passage shows very clearly St Paul's passionate temperament and his ardent zeal for souls; he does not mind doing something which costs him a great deal, if that is what has to be done to ensure that souls he has won for Christ are not lost; and he overlooks the fact that the Corinthians have not spoken out on his behalf (as was their duty: cf. 12:11), that they have not responded to his love and vigilance for them (cf. 12:15), or that his words have been misinterpreted (cf. 12:19). His attitude stands as a very good example of upright intention: he devotes his whole life to souls, seeking no human recompense (cf. 12:15).
He begins by asking them to forgive his boasting (11:1-6), and goes on to point out that one of his boasts is that he had no worldly purpose of any kind when preaching in Corinth (11:7-1S). Again he asks them to forgive his boasting (11: 16-21) and then lists the other points on which he can claim credit--the sufferings in which preaching has involved him (11:22-33) and the visions the Lord has granted him (12:1-10). And at the end of the apologia he again asks them to forgive him (12:11-18).
2-3. The simile of the husband and wife is often used in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and his people (cf. Is 62:5; Jer 3:6ff; Ezek 16:8ff). God--who says of himself, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God" (Ex 20: 5)--tells his people, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6:5; cf. Mt 22:37). In the New Testament Christ is the husband and the Church his bride (cf. Eph 5:25ff; Rev 21:9; 22: 17), "whom he redeemed with his blood, and he gave the Holy Spirit to her as his pledge. He saved her from the slavery of the devil; he gave his life for her sins and he arose for her justification" (St Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 8, 4).
St Paul acts the part of the bridegroom's friend (cf. Jn 3:29) whose duty it is to protect the virginity of the bride, and he sees the danger she is in from the snares of her enemies.
"The Apostle", St Thomas comments, "is saying that the Church is like Eve; the devil sometimes attacks her openly by the actions of tyrants and powers, in which case he is 'like a roaring lion (who) prowls around seeking some one to devour' (1 Pet 5:8). At other times he molests her in a hidden way through heresies which promise the truth and pretend to be sound--in which case he is like the serpent who seduces in an astute way, promising things he cannot give" ("Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc.").
4. It is not possible to say exactly whether the Apostle is referring to something which actually happened, or whether he is proposing an absurd hypothesis. If the first, he may be referring to the teachings of the Judaizers, who were arguing that in order to be saved it was necessary to keep the prescriptions of the Old Law --which meant substituting the spirit of sons of God for the spirit of slavery, thereby undervaluing the person of Christ and his work of salvation.
If he is proposing a theoretical case, what he means is that if anyone preaches to them a more sublime Gospel than the one he has preached they would do well to listen to that preacher; but that could not happen, because there is only one Jesus and only one Gospel (cf. Gal 1:6-9), and, moreover, as he goes on to tell them in detail, he is in no way inferior to these intruders who are making out that they are apostles.
"Another Jesus": this follows the Greek text. The New Vulgate has "another Christ".
5-6. In speaking here of these "superlative apostles" St Paul does not seem to be referring to the Apostles chosen by our Lord, but rather to be alluding sarcastically to his opponents. Later on he will refer to them again in the same terms (12:11; cf. 1 Cor 11:12f).
"Unskilled in speaking": this cannot mean that the Apostle had special difficulty in expressing himself: he must mean that he is not a professional orator, that is, someone who, after the style of the time, had been trained in rhetoric. Elsewhere he has spoken at length to the Corinthians (cf. 1 Cor 1:18-34) about his apparent lack of eloquence, and the divine wisdom which he nevertheless communicated.
7-15. St Paul made a point of preaching the Gospel without reward, not exercising his right to be financially supported by the faithful but instead earning enough through work to maintain himself: this clearly shows the uprightness of his intention. This he explained previously (cf. 1 Cor 9:4-18 and corresponding notes), and now repeats: he sees this as something praiseworthy and does not intend to alter his practice (v. 10), particularly as it marks him as different from the false apostles who have appeared in Corinth. So, it is not lack of affection for the Corinthians that has led him to act in this way, nor, as he says ironically (v. 1), is he wrong in doing so.
In Corinth, specifically, he worked at tent-making with Aquila and Priscilla (cf. Acts 18:1-3). He experienced want, and had to "rob" others--as he says, by way of exaggeration (v. 8)--in order to be able to keep on serving them: possibly he is referring to Silas and Timothy as those who brought him the wherewithal from Macedonia (Acts 18:5). As we point out in the note on I Corinthians 9:15-18, the only exception he made was in the case of the Philippians (Philippi was the capital of Macedonia), whom he allowed to meet his need on occasions (cf. Phil 4: 15f).
Once again we can see Paul's remarkable capacity for work and self-sacrifice; in this he sets an example for all Christians. "What did the holy apostles teach us, or what do they teach us?", St Bernard asks himself. "Not the skill of the fisherman, not how to make tents or things like that [...]. They taught us how to live. o you think that knowing how to live is not much? It is a great deal, or rather the greatest thing of all [...]. The upright life I judge to consist in suffering evils, doing good and persevering like that to death" ("Sermon on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul", I, 3).
11. "God knows I do": this sentence, in the original, is somewhat ambiguous; but he obviously is calling God to witness how much he loves the Corinthians.
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From: Matthew 6:7-15
An Upright Intention in Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples:) [7] "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. [8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. [9] Pray then like this: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. [10] Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. [11] Give us this day our daily bread; [12] And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [14] For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you; [15] but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
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Commentary:
7-8. Jesus condemns the superstitious notion that long prayers are needed to attract God's attention. True piety is not so much a matter of the amount of words as of the frequency and the love with which the Christian turns towards God in all the events, great or small, of his day. Vocal prayer is good, and necessary; but the words count only if they express our inner feelings.
9-13. The "Our Father" is, without any doubt, the most commented-on passage in all Sacred Scripture. Numerous great Church writers have left us commentaries full of poetry and wisdom. The early Christians, taught by the precepts of salvation, and following the divine commandment, centered their prayer on this sublime and simple form of words given them by Jesus. And the last Christians, too, will raise their hearts to say the "Our Father" for the last time when they are on the point of being taken to Heaven. In the meantime, from childhood to death, the "Our Father" is a prayer which fills us with hope and consolation. Jesus fully realized how helpful this prayer would be to us. We are grateful to Him for giving it to us, to the Apostles for passing it on to us and, in the case of most Christians, to our mothers for teaching it to us in our infancy. So important is the Lord's Prayer that from apostolic times it has been used, along with the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments, as the basis of Christian catechesis. Catechumens were introduced to the life of prayer by the "Our Father", and our catechisms today use it for that purpose.
St. Augustine says that the Lord's Prayer is so perfect that it sums up in a few words everything man needs to ask God for (cf. "Sermon", 56). It is usually seen as being made up of an invocation and seven petitions--three to do with praise of God and four with the needs of men.
9. It is a source of great consolation to be able to call God "our Father"; Jesus, the Son of God, teaches men to invoke God as Father because we are indeed His children, and should feel towards Him in that way. "The Lord [...] is not a tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge; He is our Father. He speaks to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but He also does so in order to free us from them, to promise us His friendship and His love [...]. A child of God treats the Lord as his Father. He is not obsequious and servile, he is not merely formal and well-mannered; he is completely sincere and trusting" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 64).
"Hallowed by Thy name": in the Bible a person's "name" means the same as the person himself. Here the name of God means God Himself. Why pray that His name be hallowed, sanctified? We do not mean sanctification in the human sense -- leaving evil behind and drawing closer to God--for God is Holiness Itself. God, rather, is sanctified when His holiness is acknowledged and honored by His creatures--which is what this first petition of the "Our Father" means (cf. "St. Pius Catechism", IV, 10).
10. "Thy Kingdom come": this brings up again the central idea of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--the coming of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is so identical with the life and work of Jesus Christ that the Gospel is referred to now as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, now as the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 9:35). On the notion of the Kingdom of God see the commentary on Matthew 3:2 and 4:17. The coming of the Kingdom of God is the realization of God's plan of salvation in the world. The Kingdom establishes itself in the first place in the core of man's being, raising him up to share in God's own inner life. This elevation has, as it were, two stages--the first, in this life, where it is brought about by grace; the second, definitive stage in eternal life, where man's elevation to the supernatural level is fully completed. We for our part need to respond to God spontaneously, lovingly and trustingly.
"Thy will be done": this third petition expresses two desires. The first is that man identify humbly and unconditionally with God's will--abandonment in the arms of his Father God. The second that the will of God be fulfilled, that man cooperate with it in full freedom. For example, God's will is to be found in the moral aspect of the divine law--but this law is not forced on man. One of the signs of the coming of the Kingdom is man's loving fulfillment of God's will. The second part of the petition, "on earth as it is in Heaven", means that, just as the angels and saints in Heaven are fully at one with God's will, so--we desire--should the same thing obtain on earth.
Our effort to do God's will proves that we are sincere when we say the words, "Thy will be done." For our Lord says, "Not every one who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven." (Matthew 7:21). "Anyone, then, who sincerely repeats this petition, 'Fiat voluntas tua', must, at least in intention, have done this already" (St. Teresa of Avila, "Way of Perfection", chapter 36).
11. In making this fourth petition, we are thinking primarily of our needs in this present life. The importance of this petition is that it declares that the material things we need in our lives are good and lawful. It gives a deep religious dimension to the support of life: what Christ's disciple obtains through his own work is also something for which he should implore God--and he should receive it gratefully as a gift from God. God is our support in life: by asking God to support him and by realizing that it is God who is providing this support, the Christian avoids being worried about material needs. Jesus does not want us to pray for wealth or to be attached to material things, but to seek and make sober use of what meets our needs. Hence, in Matthew as well as in Luke (Luke 11:2), there is reference to having enough food for every day. This fourth petition, then, has to do with moderate use of food and material things--far from the extremes of opulence and misery, as God already taught in the Old Testament "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food which is needful for me, lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:8).
The Fathers of the Church interpreted the bread asked for here not only as material food but also as referring to the Blessed Eucharist, without which our spirit cannot stay alive.
According to the "St. Pius V Catechism" (cf. IV, 13, 21) the Eucharist is called our daily bread because it is offered daily to God in the Holy Mass and because we should worthily receive it, every day if possible, as St. Ambrose advises: "If the bread is daily, why do you take it only once a year [...]? Receive daily what is of benefit to you daily! So live that you may deserve to receive it daily!" ("De Sacramentis", V, 4).
12. "Debts": clearly, here, in the sense of sin. In the Aramaic of Jesus' time the same word was used for offense and debt. In this fifth petition, then, we admit that we are debtors because we have offended God. The Old Testament is full of references to man's sinful condition. Even the "righteous" are sinners. Recognizing our sins is the first step in every conversion to God. It is not a question of recognizing that we have sinned in the past but of confessing our present sinful condition. Awareness of our sinfulness makes us realize our religious need to have recourse to the only One who can cure it. Hence the advantage of praying insistently, using the Lord's Prayer to obtain God's forgiveness time and again.
The second part of this petition is a serious call to forgive our fellow-men, for we cannot dare to ask God to forgive us if we are not ready to forgive others. The Christian needs to realize what this prayer implies: unwillingness to forgive others means that one is condemning oneself (see the notes on Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:21:21-35).
13. "And lead us not into temptation": "We do not ask to be totally exempt from temptation, for human life is one continuous temptation (cf. Job 7:1). What, then, do we pray for in this petition? We pray that the divine assistance may not forsake us, lest having been deceived, or worsted, we should yield to temptation; and that the grace of God may be at hand to succor us when our strength fails, to refresh and invigorate us in our trials" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 15, 14).
In this petition of the "Our Father" we recognize that our human efforts alone do not take us very far in trying to cope with temptation, and that we need to have humble recourse to God, to get the strength we need. For, "God is strong enough to free you from everything and can do you more good than all the devils can do you harm. All that God decrees is that you confide in Him, that you draw near Him, that you trust Him and distrust yourself, and so be helped; and with this help you will defeat whatever hell brings against you.Never lose hold of this firm hope [...] even if the demons are legion and all kinds of severe temptations harass you. Lean upon Him, because if the Lord is not your support and your strength, then you will fall and you will be afraid of everything" (St. John of Avila, "Sermons, 9, First Sunday of Lent").
"But deliver us from evil": in this petition, which, in a way, sums up the previous petitions, we ask the Lord to free us from everything our enemy does to bring us down; we cannot be free of him unless God Himself free us, in response to our prayers.
This sentence can also be translated as "Deliver us from the Evil One", that is to say, the devil, who is in the last analysis the author of all evils to which we are prone.
In making this request we can be sure that our prayer will be heard because Jesus Christ, when He was on the point of leaving this world, prayed to the Father for the salvation of all men: "I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).
14-15. In verses 14 and 15 St. Matthew gives us a sort of commentary of our Lord on the fifth petition of the "Our Father".
A God who forgives is a wonderful God. But if God, who is thrice-holy, has mercy on the sinner, how much more ought we to forgive others--we sinners, who know from our own experience the wretchedness of sin. No one on earth is perfect. Just as God loves us, even though we have defects, and forgives us, we should love others, even though they have defects, and forgive them. If we wait to love people who have no defects, we shall never love anyone. If we wait until others mend their ways or apologize, we will scarcely ever forgive them. But then we ourselves will never be forgiven. "All right: that person has behaved badly towards you. But, haven't you behaved worse towards God?" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 686).
Thus, forgiving those who have offended us makes us like our Father, God: "In loving our enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who, by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to Himself the human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to Him" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 14, 19).
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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.
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