CCC Cross Reference:
Wis 2:23-24 1008; Wis 2:24 391, 413, 2538
Ps 34:3 716
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Reading 1
Wis 2:23–3:9
God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made them.
But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world,
and they who are in his possession experience it.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
They shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
R. (2a) I will bless the Lord at all times.
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. I will bless the Lord at all times.
The Lord has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The Lord confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. I will bless the Lord at all times.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. I will bless the Lord at all times.
Gospel
Lk 17:7-10
Jesus said to the Apostles:
“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded, say,
‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Wisdom 2:23 - 3:9
God made man imperishable,
he made him in the image of his own nature;
it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world,
as those who are his partners will discover.
But the souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God,
no torment shall ever touch them.
In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die,
their going looked like a disaster,
their leaving us, like annihilation;
but they are in peace.
If they experienced punishment as men see it,
their hope was rich with immortality;
slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be.
God has put them to the test
and proved them worthy to be with him;
he has tested them like gold in a furnace,
and accepted them as a holocaust.
When the time comes for his visitation they will shine out;
as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
They shall judge nations, rule over peoples,
and the Lord will be their king for ever.
They who trust in him will understand the truth,
those who are faithful will live with him in love;
for grace and mercy await those he has chosen.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):2-3, 16-19
I will bless the Lord at all times.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
The Lord turns his face against the wicked
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
The Lord turns his eyes to the just
and his ears to their appeal.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
They call and the Lord hears
and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
Gospel Luke 17:7 – 10
Jesus said, ‘Which of you, with a servant plowing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty”.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Tuesday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time
From: Wisdom 2:23-3:9
The Origin of Evil and Death
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[23] For God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.
The Death of the Righteous
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[1] But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. [2] In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an affliction, [3] and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. [4] For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. [5] Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; [6] like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. [7] In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. [8] They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them for ever. [9] Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones.
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Commentary:
2:21-24. The mistake of the ungodly is to think that nothing lies beyond death. But this way of thinking stems from the wickedness of their lives which prevents them from knowing God's purposes and causes them to despise the way upright people live. The inspired author takes issue with them and spells out God's plan for man and how death came to be (vv. 23-24). But here again "death” has a farreaching meaning: it means losing that incorruptibility which, as the author sees it, lies beyond physical death. The death that entered the world through the devil's envy, the death experienced by those who belong to the devil's "party”, means to be reduced to nothing, to become "dishonored corpses” (4:18), through losing the incorruptibility that comes from God. What the author is saying here
presupposes the Genesis account of how man was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) and therefore with a seed of immortality, and how the devil tempted man to commit the original sin that resulted in the loss of immortality (cf. Gen 3-4). But the author of Wisdom goes further than that: he says that only those who belong to the devil lose the "immortality” (which he terms "incorruption”) of the human person as an entity made up of soul and body. On the basis of this interpretation and in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, St Paul teaches that death, both physical and spiritual, reaches all human beings through the sin committed by Adam; but Christ, the new Adam, redeems all from death.
The devil, in Greek "diabolos", means "accuser, calumniator” and is the usual translation given for the Hebrew "Satan". These verses do not quote Genesis explicitly, but Genesis is in the background, for it is there we find the serpent identified as God's enemy and man's. The New Testament writers remind us that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (cf. Jn 8:44); and in its account of the battle between good and bad angels, the book of Revelation will say: "The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9).
3:1-4:20. This passage describes at some length the contrasting situations of the righteous and the ungodly in this life, in death, and beyond the grave. The author has consoling things to say to the righteous as regards afflictions; they have every reason to hope. But evildoers he describes as foolish; theirs is a fundamental error which will cause them grief now; any suffering they experience will do them no good; their death is grievous and so is what lies beyond it: "Two possibilities are laid open to us at the same time: life and death--and each person will come to the end that befits him. Life and death are like two types of coin, one belongs to God and the other to this world, each with its own hallmark: unbelievers deal in the currency of this world, and those who have remained faithful through love carry the coin of God the Father, which is marked with Jesus Christ. If we are not ready to die for him or to imitate his passion, we will not have his life within us” (St Ignatius of Antioch, "Ad Magnesios", 5, 2).
3:1-9. These very poetic lines convey very well the notion of the reward that awaits the just in the after-life, but they are not very specific about it. The author uses expressions that correspond to the time in history and Revelation in which he lives, but they do enable us to get an idea of the state of the blessed: "The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and no torment will ever touch them” (v. 1); the righteous dead are "at peace” (v. 3), that is, in the sphere proper to God; they can be sure of immortality, "athanasia" (v. 4). They will abide in the Kingdom of God forever and share in God's power to judge and rule (v. 8; cf. Mt 19:28)--a pointer to their power of intercession. One could say that the most encouraging line of all is, "the faithful will abide with him in love” (v. 9). Still to come is the explicit New Testament revelation which tells us that the blessed "shall see God as he is” (1 Jn 3:2), not as in a (dull) mirror but "face to face”; they will know him as he knows them (cf. 1 Cor 13:12) and they will be with Christ forever in heaven (cf. 1 Thess 4:17).
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From: Luke 17:7-10
Humble Service
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [7] "Will any of you, who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at table'? [8] Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink'? [9] Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? [10] So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"
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Commentary:
7-10. Jesus is not approving this master's abusive and arbitrary behavior: He is using an example very familiar to His audience to show the attitude a person should have towards his Creator: everything, from our very existence to the eternal happiness promised us, is one huge gift from God. Man is always in debt to God; no matter what service he renders Him he can never adequately repay the gifts God has given him. There is no sense in a creature adopting a proud attitude towards God. What Jesus teaches us here we see being put into practice by our Lady, who replied to God's messenger (the Archangel Gabriel), "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" (Luke 1:38).
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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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