CCC Cross Reference:
Dt 6:4-5 201, 459, 2093; Dt 6:4 228, 2083; Dt 6:5 368, 2055, 2133; Dt 6:13-14 2084; Dt 6:13 2096, 2150
Back to the Deacon’s Bench '07
Back to Deacon's Bench '09
Back to SOW II '15
Back to SOW II '17
Back to SOW II '21
Reading 1
Dt 6:4-13
Moses said to the people:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!
Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
“When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which he swore
to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
that he would give you,
a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner,
with cisterns that you did not dig,
with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant;
and when, therefore, you eat your fill,
take care not to forget the Lord,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
The Lord, your God, shall you fear;
him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.”
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 and 51
R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O Lord, my strength,
O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the Lord, I exclaim!
And I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The Lord live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior!
You who gave great victories to your king,
and showed kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Gospel
Mt 17:14-20
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Deuteronomy 6:4 – 13
These are the words that Moses spoke beyond Jordan to the whole of Israel:
Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart. You shall repeat them to your children and say them over to them whether at rest in your house or walking abroad, at your lying down or at your rising; you shall fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet; you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
When the Lord has brought you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, with great and prosperous cities not of your building, houses full of good things not furnished by you, wells you did not dig, vineyards and olives you did not plant, when you have eaten these and had your fill, then take care you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You must fear the Lord your God, you must serve him, by his name you must swear.
Psalm: Psalm 17(18):2-4,47,51
I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my saviour.
I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God is the rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.
The Lord is worthy of all praise,
when I call I am saved from my foes.
I love you, Lord, my strength.
Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,
He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed.
I love you, Lord, my strength.
Gospel Matthew 17:14 – 20
As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘take pity on my son: he is a lunatic and in a wretched state; he is always falling into the fire or into the water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.’ ‘Faithless and perverse generation!’ Jesus said in reply ‘How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy who was cured from that moment.
Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to cast it out? they asked. He answered, ‘Because you have little faith. I tell you solemnly, if your faith were the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
From: Deuteronomy 6:4-13
The Shema
-----------------
(Moses said to the people,) [4] "Hear; 0 Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; [5] and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. [6] And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; [7] and you shall teach them diligently to your chil- dren, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. [8] And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [9] And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
An Appeal for Faithfulness
--------------------------------------
[10] "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, [11] and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, [12] then take heed lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. [13] You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name."
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
6:19. This is a very moving text and one of special importance for the faith and life of the chosen people. The high-point comes at v. 5, which is reminiscent of other pages of the Old Testament (Deut 10:12; Hos 2:21-22; 6:6). The love which God seeks from Israel is preceded by God's love for Israel (cf. Deut 5:32- 33). Here we touch one of the central points of God's revelation to mankind, both in the Old and in the New Testament: over and above everything else, God is love (cf., e.g., 1 Jn 4:8-16).
Verse 4 is a clear, solemn profession of monotheism, which is a distinctive feature of Israel that marks it out from the nations round about (cf. the note on 5:6- 10). The first Hebrew word of v. 4 ("shema": "Hear") has given its name to the famous prayer which the Israelites recited over the centuries and which is made up largely of 6:4:9; 11:18-21 and Numbers 5:37-41. Pious Jews still say it today, every morning and evening. In the Catholic Church, vv. 4-7 are said at Compline after first vespers on Sundays and solemnities in the Liturgy of Hours.
The exhortations in vv. 8-9 were given a literal interpretation by the Jews: this is the origin of phylacteries and of the "mezuzah". Phylacteries were short tassels or tapes which were attached to the forehead and to the left arm, and each tassel held a tiny box containing a biblical text, the two Deuteronomy texts of the "Shema" plus Exodus 3:1-10, 11-16; in our Lord's time the Pharisees wore wider tassels to give the impression that they were particularly observant of the Law (cf. Mt 23:5). The "mezuzah" is a small box, attached to the doorposts of houses, which contains a parchment or piece of paper inscribed with the two texts from Deuteronomy referred to; Jews touch the "mezuzah" with their fingers, which they then kiss, on entering or leaving the house.
6:5. God asks Israel for all its love. Yet, is love something that can be made the subject of a commandment? What God asks of Israel, and of each of us, is not a mere feeling which man cannot control; it is something that has to do with the will. It is an affection which can and should be cultivated by taking to heart, evermore profoundly, our filial relationship with our Father; as the New Testament (1 Jn 4:10,19) will later put it: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.[...] We love, because he first loved us." That is why God can indeed promulgate the precept of love; as he does in this verse of Deuteronomy (6:5) and further on in 10:12-13.
"With all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (v. 5): the wording shows that love for God should be total. Our Lord will quote these verses (4-5), which were so familiar to his listeners, when identifying the first and most important of the commandments (cf Mt 12:29-30).
"When someone asks him 'Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?' (Mt 22:36), Jesus replies: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets' (Mt 22:37-40; cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). The Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 2055).
6:13. The exhortation to fear of the Lord is to be found often in Deuteronomy and in the entire Old Testament. It does not mean an irrational fear or terror in regard to Yahweh. Fear of the Lord is, rather, a rule of behavior, equivalent to being faithful to the Covenant, obeying the commandments, walking in the way of the Lord, serving him with all one's heart (cf. 10:12); it is a fear which means that one fears nothing else--enemies or strange gods (cf. e.g., 5:7; 6:14; 11:16). In practice, a "God-fearing" Jew is a devout Jew (cf., e.g., 1 Kings 18:3; Lk 1:50).
*********************************************************************************************
From: Matthew 17:14-20
The Curing of an Epileptic Boy
--------------------------------------------
[14] And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, [15] "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. [16] And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." [17] And Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." [18] And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. [19] Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" [20] He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move hence to yonder place,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
14-21. This episode of the curing of the boy shows both Christ's omnipotence and the power of prayer full of faith. Because of his deep union with Christ, a Christian shares, through faith, in God's own omnipotence, to such an extent that Jesus actually says on another occasion, "he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father" (Jn 14:12).
Our Lord tells the Apostles that if they had faith they would be able to work miracles, to move mountains. "Moving mountains" was probably a proverbial saying. God would certainly let a believer move a mountain if that were necessary for his glory and for the edification of one's neighbor; however, Christ's promise is fulfilled everyday in a much more exalted way. Some Fathers of the Church (St. Jerome, St. Augustine) say that "a mountain is moved" every time someone is divinely aided to do something which exceed man's natural powers. This clearly happens in the work of our sanctification, which the Paraclete effects in our souls when we are docile to him and receive with faith and love the grace given us in the sacraments: we benefit from the sacraments to a greater or lesser degree depending on the dispositions with which we receive them. Sanctification is something more sublime than moving mountains, and it is something which is happening every day in so many holy souls, even though most people do not notice it.
The Apostles and many saints down the centuries have in fact worked amazing material miracles; but the greatest and most important miracles were, are and will be the miracles of souls dead through sin and ignorance being reborn and developing in the new life of the children of God.
20. Here and in the parable of Matthew 13:31-32 the main force of the comparison lies in the fact that a very small seed -- the mustard seed -- produces a large shrub up to three meters (ten feet) high: even a very small act of genuine faith can produce surprising results.
*********************************************************************************************
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment