Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

438 Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

CCC Cross Reference:
Col 2:9 484, 515, 722, 2502; Col 2:11-13 527; Col 2:12 628, 1002, 1214, 1227, 1694
Ps 145:9 295, 342
Lk 6:12-16 1577; Lk 6:12 2600; Lk 6:19 695, 1116, 1504

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Reading 1
Col 2:6-15

Brothers and sisters:
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elemental powers of the world
and not according to Christ.

For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,
and you share in this fullness in him,
who is the head of every principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision not administered by hand,
by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead in transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers,
he made a public spectacle of them,
leading them away in triumph by it.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:1b-2, 8-9, 10-11

R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The Lord is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Gospel
Lk 6:12-19

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

First reading Colossians 2:6 – 15

You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received – Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.

Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some second-hand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ.

In his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your own fulfillment, in the one who is the head of every Sovereignty and Power.
In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision not performed by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your body of flesh. This is circumcision according to Christ. You have been buried with him, when you were baptized; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.

He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross; and so he got rid of the Sovereignties and the Powers, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 144(145):1-2,8-11

How good is the Lord to all.

I will give you glory, O God my king,
  I will bless your name for ever.
I will bless you day after day
  and praise your name for ever.

How good is the Lord to all.

The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
  slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
  compassionate to all his creatures.

How good is the Lord to all.

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
  and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
  and declare your might, O God.

How good is the Lord to all.

Gospel Luke 6:12 – 19

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.


Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible

Tuesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

From: Colossians 2:6-15

A Warning About Empty Philosophies
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[6] As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, [7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

[8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

Defense of Sound Teaching in the Face of Heresy
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[9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; [12] and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.

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Commentary:

4-8. These verses reveal the Apostle's pastoral solicitude for the faithful of Colossae. Although physically absent, he is with them in spirit. He rejoices and gives thanks to God for their steadfastness, but he leaves them in no doubt about the dangers which threaten their faith. Clearly he is referring to those who were adulterating the Colossians' faith by intruding erroneous ideas. By sophistry and deceit they were trying to convince the faithful that it was better to have recourse to angels rather than to Christ, arguing that angels were the chief mediators between God and men.

The Christian faith is not opposed to human scholarship and science, it rejects only vain philosophy, that is, philosophy which boasts that it relies on reason alone and which fails to respect revealed truths.

Over the centuries, people have often tried to adapt the truths of faith to the philosophies or ideologies which happen to be in vogue. In this connection Leo Xlll said: "As the Apostle warns, 'philosophy and empty deceit' can deceive the minds of Christians and corrupt the sincerity of men's faith; the supreme pastors of the Church, therefore, always see it as part of their role to foster as much as they can sciences which merit that name, and at the same time to ensure by special watchfulness, that human sciences are taught in keeping with the criteria of Catholic faith--particularly philosophy, because proper methodology in the other sciences is largely dependent on [correctness in] philosophy" ("Aeterni Patris", 1).

"The elemental spirits of the universe": see the note on Gal 4:3.

9. This is such an important verse that it deserves close analysis. "Dwell": the Greek word means a stable way of living or residing, as distinct from a transitory presence: in other words, the union of Christ's human nature with his divine nature is not just something which lasts for a while; it is permanent. "Deity": the Greek word can also be translated as "divinity"; in either case, the sentence means that God has taken up a human nature, in such a way that, although it was only the second divine Person, the Son, who became incarnate, by virtue of the unity of the divine essence, where one divine person is present the other two persons are also present.

This verse enunciates the profound mystery of the Incarnation in a different way to John 1:14: "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory; glory as of the only Son from the Father" (cf. also 1 in 1:1-2).

When the sacred text says that in Christ "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily", it means, St John of Avila explains, "that it does not dwell in him merely by grace -- as in the case of the saints (men and angels both), but in another way of greater substance and value, that is, by way of personal union" ("Audi, "Filia", 84).

In Jesus Christ, then, there are two natures, divine and human, united in one person, who is divine. This "hypostatic union" does not prevent each nature from having all its own proper characteristics, for, as St Leo the Great defined, "the Word has not changed into flesh, nor has flesh changed into Word; but each remains, in a unity" ("Licet Per Nostros", 2).

10. Since Christ is head of angels and men, the head of all creation (cf. Eph 1: 10) and especially head of the Church (cf. Col 1:18), all fullness is said to reside in him (cf. note on Col 1:19). Hence, not only is he pre-eminent over all things but "he fills the Church, which is his body and fullness, with his divine gifts (cf. Eph 1:22-23), so that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God (cf. Eph 3:19)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 7).

Union with Christ makes Christians sharers in his "fullness", that is, in divine grace (of which he is absolutely full and we have a partial share), in a word, in his perfections.

That is why the members of the Church who "through the sacraments are united in a hidden and real way to Christ" ("Lumen Gentium", 7) can attain the fullness of the Christian life.

It was very appropriate for St Paul to be instructing the Colossians in these truths at this time, because it put them on their guard against preachers who were arguing for exaggerated worship of angels, to the detriment of Christ's unique, preeminent mediation.

11-12. This is a reference to another error which the Judaizers were trying to spread at Colossae and which was already treated in detail in the letters to the Galatians and the Romans--the idea that it was necessary for Christians to be circumcised. Physical circumcision affects the body, whereas what the Apostle, by analogy, calls "the circumcision of Christ", that is, Baptism, puts off the "body of flesh" (an expression which seems to refer to whatever is sinful in man). "We, who by means of (Christ) have reached God, have not been given fleshly circumcision but rather spiritual circumcision [...]; we receive it by the mercy of God in Baptism" (St Justin, "Dialogue with Trypho", 43, 2). "By the sacrament of Baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in the way the Lord determined and received with the proper dispositions of soul, man becomes truly incorporated into the crucified and glorified Christ and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the Apostle says: [Col 2:12 follows]" (Vatican II, "Unitatis Redintegratio", 22).

As on other occasions (cf. Rom 6:4), St Paul, evoking the rite of immersion in water, speaks of Baptism as a kind of burial (a sure sign that someone has died to sin), and of resurrection to a new life, the life of grace. By this sacrament we are associated with Christ's death and burial so as to be able to rise with him. "Christ by his resurrection signified our new life, which was reborn out of the old death which submerged us in sin. This is what is brought about in us by the great sacrament of Baptism: all those who receive this grace die to sin [...] and are reborn to the new life" (St Augustine, "Enchiridion", 41-42).

13-14. This is one of the central teachings of the epistle--that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The basic purpose of his mediation is to reconcile men with God, through the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the life of grace, which is a sharing in God's own life.

Verse 14 indicates how Christ achieved this purpose -- by dying on the Cross. All who were under the yoke of sin and the Law have been set free through his death. The Mosaic Law, to which the scribes and Pharisees added so many precepts as to make it unbearable, had become (to use St Paul's comparison) like a charge sheet against man, because it imposed heavy burdens but did not provide the grace needed for bearing them. The Apostle very graphically says that this charge sheet or "bond" was set aside and nailed on the Cross--making it perfectly clear to all that Christ made more than ample satisfaction for our crimes. "He has obliterated them," St John Chrysostom comments, "not simply crossed them out; he has obliterated them so effectively that no trace of them remains in our soul. He has completely canceled them out, he has nailed them to the Cross [...]. We were guilty and deserved the most rigorous of punishments because we were all of us in sin! What, then, does the Son of God do? By his death on the Cross he removes all our stains and exempts us from the punishment due to them. He takes our charge-sheet, nails it to the Cross through his own person and destroys it" ("Hom. on Col, ad loc.").

15. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The angelic principalities and powers are insignificant by comparison with him: God has overpowered them and publicly exposed them through the death of his Son. The sentence seems to evoke the idea of the parade of a victorious general complete with trophies, booty and prisoners.

Some scholars interpret this passage differently; the "public spectacle", according to their interpretation, would refer to the fact that the good angels had been mediators in the revelation of the Mosaic Law (cf. Gal 3:19) and were being venerated by some contemporary Jews (among them some converts from Colossae) with a form of worship bordering on superstition. God would have caused them to become "a public spectacle" when they acted as a kind of escort in Christ's victory parade. Thus, both interpretations lead to the conclusion that angels, who are Christ's servants, should not be rendered the worship due to him alone, even though they do play an important part in God's plan of salvation. One of the missions entrusted to them is that of continually interceding on behalf of mankind.

At the time this epistle was being written there was need to emphasize first that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. The mediation of angels depends on him (it is something revealed in fact in the Old Testament: cf. Tob 12:3, 12ff; Dan 9:2ff; 10: 13; Ezek 49:3; Zech 1:9; etc.). The Blessed Virgin Mary's mediation, also subordinate to that of Christ, is something which becomes clearer as the events of the New Testament unfold. Mary's mediation is, however, on a higher level than that of the angels. Ven. Pope Pius XII says this, echoing earlier teachings: "If, as he does, the Word works miracles and infuses grace by means of the human nature he has taken on, if he uses the sacraments, and his Saints, as instruments for the saving of souls, how could he not use the office and action of his most blessed Mother to distribute the fruits of the Redemption?

"With a truly maternal spirit (our predecessor Pius IX of immortal memory says), having in her hands the business of our salvation, she concerns herself with all mankind, for she has been made by the Lord Queen of heaven and earth and is raised above all the choirs of Angels and all the degrees of the Saints in heaven; she is there at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in most effective supplication, obtaining whatever she asks; she cannot but be heard" ("Ad Caeli Reginam", 17).

"Principalities and powers": see the note on Eph 6:12.

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From: Luke 6:12-19

The Calling of the Apostles
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[12] In these days He (Jesus) went out into the hills to pray; and all night He continued in prayer to God. [13] And when it was day, He called His disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom He named Apostles: [14] Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Sermon on the Mount
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[17] And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; [18] and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. [19] And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came forth from Him and healed them all.

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Commentary:

12-13. The evangelist writes with a certain formality when describing this important occasion on which Jesus chooses the Twelve, constituting them as the apostolic college: "The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father, called to Himself those whom He willed and appointed twelve to be with Him, whom He might send to preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 2:13-19; Matthew 10:1-42). These Apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which He placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. John 21:15-17). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in His power, they might make all peoples His disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf. Matthew 28: 16-20; and par.) and thus spread the Church and, administering it under the guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20). They were fully confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Act 2:1-26) [...]. Through their preaching the Gospel everywhere (cf. Mark 16:20), and through its being welcomed and received under the influence of the Holy Spirit by those who hear it, the Apostles gather together the universal Church, which the Lord founded upon the Apostles and built upon Blessed Peter their leader, the chief cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself (cf. Revelation 21:14; Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:20). That divine mission, which was committed by Christ to the Apostles, is destined to last until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20), since the Gospel, which they were charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the principle of all its life for all time. For that very reason the Apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically constituted society" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 19-20).

Before establishing the apostolic college, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer. He often made special prayer for His Church (Luke 9:18; John 17:1ff), thereby preparing His Apostles to be its pillars (cf. Galatians 2:9). As His Passion approaches, He will pray to the Father for Simon Peter, the head of the Church, and solemnly tell Peter that He has done so: "But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail" (Luke 22:32). Following Christ's example, the Church stipulates that on many occasions liturgical prayer should be offered for the pastors of the Church (the Pope, the bishops in general, and priests) asking God to give them grace to fulfill their ministry faithfully.

Christ is continually teaching us that we need to pray always (Luke 18:1). Here He shows us by His example that we should pray with special intensity at important moments in our lives. "'Pernoctans in oratione Dei. He spent the whole night in prayer to God.' So St. Luke tells of our Lord. And you? How often have you persevered like that? Well, then...." (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 104).

On the need for prayer and the qualities our prayer should have, see the notes on Matthew 6:5-6; 7:7-11; 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 11:1-4; 22:41-42.

12. Since Jesus is God, why does He pray? There were two wills in Christ, one divine and one human (cf. "St. Pius X Catechism", 91), and although by virtue of His divine will He was omnipotent, His human will was not omnipotent. When we pray, what we do is make our will known to God; therefore Christ, who is like us in all things but sin (Hebrews 4:15), also had to pray in a human way (cf. "Summa Theologiae", III, q. 21, a. 1). Reflecting on Jesus at prayer, St. Ambrose comments: "The Lord prays not to ask things for Himself, but to intercede on my behalf; for although the Father has put everything into the hands of the Son, still the Son, in order to behave in accordance with His condition as man, considers it appropriate to implore the Father for our sake, for He is our Advocate [...]. A Master of obedience, by His example He instructs us concerning the precepts of virtue: 'We have an advocate with the Father' (1 John 2:1)" ("Expositio Evangelii sec. Lucam, in loc.").

14-16. Jesus chose for Apostles very ordinary people, most of them poor and uneducated; apparently only Matthew and the brothers James and John had social positions of any consequence. But all of them gave up whatever they had, little or much as it was, and all of them, bar Judas, put their faith in the Lord, overcame their shortcomings and eventually proved faithful to grace and became saints, veritable pillars of the Church. We should not feel uneasy when we realize that we too are low in human qualities; what matters is being faithful to the grace God gives us.

19. God became man to save us. The divine person of the Word acts through the human nature which He took on. The cures and casting out of devils which He performed during His life on earth are also proof that Christ actually brings redemption and not just hope of redemption. The crowds of people from Judea and other parts of Israel who flock to Him, seeking even to touch Him, anticipate, in a way, Christians' devotion to the holy Humanity of Christ.

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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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