Catechism Links
CCC 852: The Spirit of Christ sustains the Christian mission
CCC 905: Evangelizing by the example of life
CCC 1808, 1816: Courageous witness of faith overcomes fear and death
CCC 2471-2474: Bear witness to the truth
CCC 359, 402-411, 615: Adam, Original Sin, Christ the New Adam
CCC Cross Reference:
Jer 20:7-18 2584
Ps 69:10 584
Rom 5:12-21 388; Rom 5:12 400, 402, 602, 612, 1008
Mt 10:28 363, 1034; Mt 10:29-31 305; Mt 10:32-33 1816; Mt 10:32 14, 2145
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Reading 1
Jer 20:10-13
Jeremiah said:
“I hear the whisperings of many:
‘Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!’
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.’
But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O Lord of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!”
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O Lord,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O Lord, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the Lord hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!"
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Reading II
Rom 5:12-15
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
Gospel
Mt 10:26-33
Jesus said to the Twelve:
“Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Jeremiah 20:10 – 13
I hear so many disparaging me,
‘“Terror from every side!”
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
All those who used to be my friends
watched for my downfall,
‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error.
Then we will master him
and take our revenge!’
But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero;
my opponents will stumble, mastered,
confounded by their failure;
everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.
But you, O Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice,
who scrutinise the loins and heart,
let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.
Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord,
for he has delivered the soul of the needy
from the hands of evil men.
Psalm or canticle: Psalm 68(69):8-10,14,17,33-35
In your great love, answer me, O Lord.
It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.
In your great love, answer me, O Lord.
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favor.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails:
Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.
In your great love, answer me, O Lord.
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,
the sea and all its living creatures.
In your great love, answer me, O Lord.
Second reading Romans 5:12 – 15
Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’, yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.
Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.
Gospel Matthew 10:26 – 33
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not be afraid of them. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.
‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
From: Jeremiah 20:10-13
Jeremiah’s fifth “confession”
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[10] For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my familiar friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived,
then we can overcome him,
and take our revenge on him.”
[11] But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
[12] O Lord of hosts, who triest the righteous,
who seest the heart and the mind,
let me see thy vengeance upon them,
for to thee have I committed my cause.
[13] Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
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Commentary:
20:7-18. This last, very dramatic “confession” is one of the most impressive passages in prophetical literature. It (especially vv. 14-18) has features in common with Job 3:1-10. It could have been uttered around 605-604 BC when Jeremiah was being persecuted by King Jehoiakim. Despite all his efforts, Jeremiah feels that he has failed; he believes in God – but could it be that he never received a special call? It is a time of inner crisis for Jeremiah. He laments his vocation, for it has led to his persecution (vv. 7-9); then he makes an act of trust in God despite the harassment he is suffering (vv. 10-13); the passage ends with a series of im- precations (vv. 14-18).
The prophet confides his feelings to God and complains about his calling (v. 7a). It looks as if God has misled him (v. 7b): the prophet has made enemies on every side. When he proclaims the word of God no one listens: reproach and derision are the only response he gets (v. 10). He would like to walk away. Yet he cannot, or God is like a “burning fire” in his heart (v. 9). Despite all his difficulties, his zeal for the Lord wins the day: it only goes to prove that those who have experienced desire to make him known to others – to those who once knew him and have forgotten him, and to those who have never heard of him. That is the message that Theodoret of Cyrus takes from this passage, recalling the example of St. Paul: “The same happened to St. Paul as he stood in silence in Athens. His soul burned within him when he saw the terrible idolatry that was practiced in that city (cf. Acts 17:16). The prophet had the same experience” (Interpretatio in Jeremiam, 20, 9). And when Origen reads this passage and asks himself whether God could ever deceive someone, he explains: “We are little children, and we must be treated as little children. God, therefore, entrances us in order to form us, although we may not be aware of this captivation before the appropriate time comes. God does not deal with us as people who have already left childhood, who can no longer be led by sweet words but only by deeds” (Homiliae in Jeremiam, 19, 15).
In spite of everything, Jeremiah is sure that God will never forsake him (v. 11). From what he says, we can see that there is an inner tension between his experience of all kinds of sufferings (vv. 14-18) and the conviction that God will never leave him (vv. 12-13). What he says in v. 18 could suggest that he is utterly depressed, but what he is doing is baring his soul to someone whom he loves and trusts entirely, even in the midst of total darkness and a sense of powerlessness. Events will show this to be the case: Jeremiah did not give up his ministry but persevered in it to the end of his life. He admits his limitations but he stays true to God: this bears out what the Lord will tell St. Paul when he feels the situation is beyond him: “My power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
Meditating on this “confession” of Jeremiah, St. John of the Cross concludes that sometimes God’s purposes are impossible to understand: “It is very difficult to attempt to understand fully the words and deeds of God, or even to decide what they may be, without falling often into error or becoming very confused. The prophets who were entrusted with the word of God knew this well; their task of prophesying to the people was a daunting one, for the people could not always see what was spoken coming to pass. Therefore, they mocked and laughed at the prophets, as Jeremiah says: I have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me (20:7). Although the prophet speaks as though resigned to his fate, in the voice of a weak man who is unable to bear any longer the vicissitudes of God, he makes clear the difference between the prophecy and its fulfillment and the common sense that the divine sayings contain, because he knows that the prophets were often taken as mischief-makers” (Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2, 20, 6).
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From: Romans 5:12-15
Adam's Original Sin
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[12] Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned -- [13] sinned indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. [14] Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come.
[15] But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
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Commentary:
12-14. This passage can be elaborated on as follows: just as sin entered the world through the action of a single individual man, so righteousness is attained for us by one man -- Jesus Christ. Adam, the first man, is a type of the "new Adam": Adam contained within himself all mankind, his offspring; the "new Adam" is "the first-born of all creation" and "the head of the body, the Church" (Colossians 1:15, 18) because He is the redeeming Word Incarnate. To Adam we are linked by flesh and blood, to Christ by faith and the Sacraments.
When, in His infinite goodness, He raised Adam to share in the divine life, God also decreed that our First Parent would pass on to us his human nature and with it all the various gifts that perfected it and the grace that sanctified it. But Adam committed a sin by breaking God's commandment and as a result he immediately lost the holiness and righteousness in which he had been installed, and because of this disloyalty he incurred God's wrath and indignation and, as consequence, death -- as God had warned him. By becoming mortal and falling under the power of the devil, Adam "was changed for the worse", in both body and soul (cf. Council of Trent, "De Peccato Originali", Canon 1). From then on Adam and his descendants pass on a human nature deprived of supernatural gifts, and men are in a state of enmity with God, which means that they cannot attain eternal beatitude.
The fact of Original Sin is a truth of faith. This has been stated once again solemnly by [Pope] Paul VI: "We believe that in Adam all have sinned. From this it follows that, on account of the original offense committed by him, human nature, which is common to all men, is reduced to that condition in which it must suffer the consequences of that Fall [...]. Consequently, fallen human nature is deprived of the economy of grace which it formerly enjoyed. It is wounded in its natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death which is transmitted to all men. It is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We hold, therefore, in accordance with the Council of Trent, that Original Sin is transmitted along with human nature, "not by imitation but by propagation", and is, therefore, incurred by each person individually" ("Creed of the People of God", 16).
Our own experience bears out what divine Revelation tells us: when we examine our conscience we realize that we have this inclination towards evil and we are conscious of being enmeshed in evils which cannot have their source in our holy Creator (cf. Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 13). The obvious presence of evil in the world and in ourselves convince us of the profound truth contained in Revelation and moves us to fight against sin.
"So much wretchedness! So many offenses! Mine, yours, those of all mankind
....
"Et in peccatis concepit me mater mea!" In sin did my mother conceive me! (Psalm 51:5). I, like all men, came into the world stained with the guilt of our First Parents. And then...my own sins: rebellions, thought about, desired, committed....
"To purify us of this rottenness, Jesus chose to humble Himself and take on the form of a slave (cf. Philippians 2:7), becoming incarnate in the spotless womb of our Lady, His Mother, who is also your Mother and mine. He spent thirty years in obscurity, working like everyone else, at Joseph's side. He preached. He worked miracles.... And we repaid Him with a cross.
"Do you need more motives for contrition?" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross, IV, 2).
13-14. Both the commandment imposed by God on Adam, and the Mosaic Law, threatened the transgressor with death; but the same cannot be said of the period between Adam and Moses. In that period also people did sin against the natural law written on every person's heart (cf. 2:12ff). However, their sins "were not like the transgression of Adam", because the natural law did not explicitly bind under pain of death. If, nevertheless, they in fact had to die, this proves, the Apostle concludes, that death is due not to personal sins but to original sin. It is also proved, the Fathers of the Church usually add, by the fact that some people die before reaching the use of reason, that is, before they are capable of sinning.
Death is a consequence of original sin, because that sin brought with it the loss of the "preternatural" gift of immortality (cf. Gen 2:17; 3:19). Adam incurred this loss when, through a personal act of his, he broke an explicit, specific command of God. Later, under the Mosaic Law, there were also certain precepts which involved the death penalty if broken (cf., for example, Exod 21:12ff; Lev 24:16). In the period from Adam to Moses there was no law which stated: If you sin, you shall die. However, people in that period were all subject to death, even those who committed no sin "like the transgression of Adam", that is, what is termed "actual sin".
Therefore, death is due to a sin--original sin--which attaches to each man, woman and child, yet which is not an "actual sin". This original sin is the cause of death, and the fact that everyone dies is the proof that everyone is affected by original sin. The Second Vatican Council sums up this teaching as follows: "The Church, taught by divine Revelation, declares that God has created man in view of a blessed destiny that lies beyond the limits of his sad state on earth. Moreover, the Christian faith teaches that bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned (cf. Wis 1:13; 2:23-24; Rom 5:21; 6:23; Jas 1: 15), will be overcome when that wholeness which he lost through his own fault will be given once again to him by the almighty and merciful Savior. For God has called man, and still calls him, to cleave with all his being to him in sharing for ever a life that is divine and free from all decay" ("Gaudium Et Spes", 18).
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From: Matthew 10:26-33
Jesus' Instructions to the Apostles (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [26] "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. [27] What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops. [28] And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. [29] Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will. [30] But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. [31] Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. [32] So every one who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven; [33] but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven."
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Commentary:
26-27. Jesus tells His disciples not to be afraid of calumny and detraction. A day will come when everyone will come to know the whole truth about everyone else, their real intentions, the true dispositions of their souls. In the meantime, those who belong to God may be misrepresented by those who resort to lies, out of malice or passion. These are the hidden things which will be made known.
Christ also tells the Apostles to speak out clearly. Jesus' divine teaching method led Him to speak to the crowds in parables so that they came to discover His true personality by easy stages. After the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:8), the Apostles would have to preach from the rooftops about what Jesus had taught them.
We too have to make Christ's doctrine known in its entirety, without any ambiguity, without being influenced by false prudence or fear of the consequences.
28. Using this and other Gospel texts (Matthew 5:22, 29; 18:9; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5), the Church teaches that hell exists; there those who die in mortal sin suffer eternal punishment (cf. "St. Pius V Catechism", I, 6, 3), in a manner not known to us in this life (cf. St. Teresa of Avila, "Life", Chapter 32). See notes on Luke 16:19-31.
Therefore, our Lord warns His disciples against false fear. We should not fear those who can only kill the body. Only God can cast body and soul into hell. Therefore God is the only one we should fear and respect; He is our Prince and Supreme Judge--not men. The martyrs have obeyed this precept of the Lord in the fullest way, well aware that eternal life is worth much more than earthly life.
29-31. An "as" (translated here as "penny") was a small coin of very little value. Christ uses it to illustrate how much God loves His creatures. As St. Jerome says ("Comm. in Matth.", 10:29-31): "If little birds, which are of such little value, still come under the providence and care of God, how is it that you, who, given the nature of your soul, are immortal, can fear that you are not looked after carefully by Him whom you respect as your Father?" Jesus again teaches us about the fatherly providence of God, which He spoke about at length in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matthew 6:19-34).
32-33. Here Jesus tells us that public confession of our faith in Him--whatever the consequences--is an indispensable condition for eternal salvation. After the Judgment, Christ will welcome those who have given testimony of their faith and condemn those whom fear caused to be ashamed of Him (cf. Matthew 7:23; 25: 41; Revelation 21:8). The Church honors as "confessors" those Saints who have not undergone physical martyrdom but whose lives bore witness to the Catholic faith. Although every Christian should be ready to die for his faith, most Christians are called to be confessors of the faith.
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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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