CCC Cross Reference:
2 Cor 6:2 1041; 2 Cor 6:4 859
Mt 5:42 2443
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Reading 1
2 Cor 6:1-10
Brothers and sisters:
As your fellow workers, we appeal to you
not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
We cause no one to stumble in anything,
in order that no fault may be found with our ministry;
on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves
as ministers of God, through much endurance,
in afflictions, hardships, constraints,
beatings, imprisonments, riots,
labors, vigils, fasts;
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness,
in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech,
in the power of God;
with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left;
through glory and dishonor, insult and praise.
We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful;
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged;
as dying and behold we live;
as chastised and yet not put to death;
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing;
as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 98:1, 2b, 3ab, 3cd-4
R. (2a) The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
In the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
Gospel
Mt 5:38-42
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to him as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand him your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go with him for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading 2 Corinthians 6:1 – 10
As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. For he says: At the favorable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help. Well, now is the favorable time; this is the day of salvation.
We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; laboring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honor or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumored to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 97(98):1-4
The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.
The Lord has made known his salvation.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.
The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.
The Lord has made known his salvation.
Gospel Matthew 5:38 – 42
Jesus said, ‘You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
From: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
St Paul, a True Servant of Christ
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[1] Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. [2] For he says, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation." Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. [3] We put no obstacle in any one's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, [4] but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, [5] beatings, imprisonment, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; [6] by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, [7] truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; [8] in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; [9] as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; [10] as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
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Commentary:
1-10. St Paul concludes his long defense of his apostolic ministry (cf. 3:1-6:10) by saying that he has always tried to act as a worthy servant of God. First he calls on the Corinthians to have a sense of responsibility so that the grace of God be not ineffective in them (vv. 1-2), and then he briefly describes the afflictions this ministry has meant for him. Earlier, he touched on this subject (cf. 4:7-12), and he will deal with it again in 11:23-33.
1-2. St Paul exhorts the faithful not to accept the grace of God in vain-which would happen if they did not cultivate the faith and initial grace they received in Baptism and if they neglected the graces which God continues to send them. This exhortation is valid for all Christians: "We receive the grace of God in vain", St Francis de Sales points out, "when we receive it at the gate of our heart, without allowing it to enter: we receive it without receiving it; we receive it without fruit, since there is no use in feeling the inspiration if one does not consent unto it. And just as the sick man who has the medicine in his hands, if he takes only part of it, will only partially benefit from it, so too, when God sends a great and mighty inspiration to move us to embrace his love, if we do not avail of it in its entirety, we shall benefit from it only partially" ("Treatise on the Love of God", book 2, chap. 11).
The Apostle urges them to cultivate the grace they have been given, using a quotation from Isaiah (49:8): the right time has come, the day of salvation. His words recall our Lord's preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. Lk 4:16-21).
The "acceptable time" will last until Christ comes in glory at the end of the world (in the life of the individual, it will last until the hour of his death); until then, every day is "the day of salvation": "'Ecce none dies salutis', the day of salvation is here before us. The call of the good shepherd has reached us: '"ego vocavi te nomine too", I have called you by name' (Is 43:1). Since love repays love, we must reply: '"ecce ego quia vocasti me", Here I am, for you called me' (1 Sam 3:5) [...]. I will be converted, I will turn again to the Lord and love him as he wants to be loved" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 59).
3. St Paul had previously warned the Corinthians of the danger of being a stumbling block for others (cf. 1 Cor 8:8-13). All Christians need to heed this warning, especially those who have positions of greater responsibility in the Church. The Apostle feels urged by this duty to live always as a "servant of God", ensuring that his conduct is always in accord with what he preaches and avoiding doing anything which could in any way be misunderstood (cf. 1 Cor 9:12; 10:32f).
4-10. In these verses the Apostle outlines what his desire to be a faithful servant of God has involved. We can distinguish four parts in this short description: first he speaks of the sufferings he has borne with great patience (vv. 4f); then of the virtues which help him overcome these severe trials (vv. 6-7a); then of the weapons which he uses in this difficult spiritual combat (vv. 7b-8a); and finally, in a series of antitheses he contrasts human judgments of himself and his co-workers, with the true facts (vv. 8b-10).
"These words of the Apostle", Monsignor Escriva comments, "should make you happy, for they are, as it were, a ratification of your vocation as ordinary Christians in the middle of the world, sharing with others--your equals--the enthusiasms, the sorrows and the joys of human life. All this is a way to God. What God asks of you is that you should, always, act as his children and servants.
"But these ordinary circumstances of life will be a divine way only if we really change ourselves, if we really give ourselves. For St Paul uses hard words. He promises that the Christian will have a hard life, a life of risk and of constant tension. How we disfigure Christianity if we try to turn it into something nice and comfortable! But neither is it correct to think that this deep, serious way of life, which is totally bound up with all the difficulties of human existence, is something full of anguish, oppression or fear.
"The Christian is a realist. His supernatural and human realism helps him appreciate all the aspects of his life--sorrow and joy, his own and other people's suffering, certainty and doubt, generosity and selfishness. The Christian experiences all this, and he confronts it all, with human integrity and with the strength he receives from God" ("Christ Is Passing By, 60).
4-5. Patience, which enables the Apostle to endure all his difficulties, is a virtue necessary for the Christian's life, which helps him endure physical or moral pain with residence, peace and serenity. St Teresa of Avila has a poem which touches on this: "Let nothing disturb thee; let nothing dismay thee; all things pass; God never changes; patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices" ("Poems", 30).
6-7. Forbearance is a virtue which helps us to seek a very distant good, one which will take a long time to obtain, and to endure this delay without losing heart. St Paul includes it among the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22).
"By the Holy Spirit": that is, directed in apostolic work by the Holy Spirit, who enlightens him in his preaching and moves the hearts of his hearers, preparing them to accept the Gospel.
"By truthful speech": St Paul has already spoken to the Corinthians about this, by pointing to the sincerity of his preaching, the fact that he does not mislead them or flatter them (cf. 2:17; 4:2) It is not the preacher's skill but the "power of God" that causes his message to be accepted (cf. 1 Cor 2:4f).
7-8. "The weapons of righteousness": St Paul also calls these the "armor of light" (Rom 13:12) as opposed to that of iniquity (cf. Rom 6:13) and worldly weapons (cf. 2 Cor 10:4), and he will write further about this, using the metaphor of combatants of his time: "Take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:13-17).
This reference in v. 7 to weapons for the right hand and for the left comes from the practice of soldiers, who wielded offensive weapons -- lance and sword—with one hand and carried defensive weapons--the shield--in the other.
8-10. In seven antitheses the Apostle contrasts his enemies' mistaken opinions about himself and his co-workers, with the true facts. As a faithful follower of our Lord, he bears out what Jesus said would happen: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household" (Mt 10:24f).
It is quite possible for a disciple of Christ to meet up with opposition from people who misread his actions or his intentions, for there are some who "when they discover something which is clearly good, poke at it to see if there is not something bad hidden underneath" (St Gregory the Great, "Moralia", 6, 22). As in St Paul's case, disciples should keep on working, and not let themselves become disillusioned or bitter: "With me it is a very small thing I should be judged by you" (1 Cor 4:3).
10. "Always rejoicing": even in the midst of severe difficulties St Paul always manages to remain cheerful. Joy is a Christian gift, the result of divine filiation—our realization that God is our Father, that he is all-powerful and that he has boundless love for us; it is something we should never lose: "let them be sad who are determined not to recognize that they are children of God" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 108).
"As having nothing, yet possessing everything": "They have nothing and possess everything who are the lovers of God, for when they lack earthly things, they are content to say, 'My Lord, you alone are enough for me', and that leaves them fully satisfied" (St Alphonsus, "The Love of Jesus Christ Reduced to Practice", chap. 14).
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From: Matthew 5:38-42
Jesus and His Teaching, the Fulfillment of the Law (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [38] "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' [39] But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; [40] and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; [41] and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. [42] Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you."
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Commentary:
38-42. Among the Semites, from whom the Israelites stemmed, the law of vengeance ruled. It led to interminable strife, and countless crimes. In the early centuries of the chosen people, the law of retaliation was recognized as an ethical advance, socially and legally: no punishment could exceed the crime, and any punitive retaliation was outlawed. In this way, the honor of the clans and families was satisfied, and endless feuds avoided.
As far as New Testament morality is concerned, Jesus establishes a definitive advance: a sense of forgiveness and absence of pride play an essential role. Every legal framework for combating evil in the world, every reasonable defense of personal rights, should be based on this morality. The three last verses refer to mutual charity among the children of the Kingdom, a charity which presupposes and deeply imbues justice.
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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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