Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

357 Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

CCC Cross Reference:
2 Tm 3:12 2847
Ps 119:160 215
Mk 12:35-37 202

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Reading 1
2 Tm 3:10-17

You have followed my teaching, way of life,
purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions,
and sufferings, such as happened to me
in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra,
persecutions that I endured.
Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me.
In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse,
deceivers and deceived.
But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching,
for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.

Responsorial Psalm
119:157, 160, 161, 165, 166, 168

R. (165a) O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

Though my persecutors and my foes are many,
I turn not away from your decrees.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

Permanence is your word’s chief trait;
each of your just ordinances is everlasting.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

Princes persecute me without cause
but my heart stands in awe of your word.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

I wait for your salvation, O Lord,
and your commands I fulfill.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

Gospel
Mk 12:35-37

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,
“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him ‘lord’;
so how is he his son?”
The great crowd heard this with delight.

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

First reading 2 Timothy 3:10 – 17

You know what I have taught, how I have lived, what I have aimed at; you know my faith, my patience and my love; my constancy and the persecutions and hardships that came to me in places like Antioch, Iconium and Lystra – all the persecutions I have endured; and the Lord has rescued me from every one of them. You are well aware, then, that anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be attacked; while these wicked impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves.

You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true; remember who your teachers were, and how, ever since you were a child, you have known the holy scriptures – from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy. This is how the man who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work.

Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 118:157,160-161,165-166,168

The lovers of your law have great peace.

Though my foes and oppressors are countless
I have not swerved from your will.
Your word is founded on truth,
your decrees are eternal.

The lovers of your law have great peace.

Though princes oppress me without cause
I stand in awe of your word.
The lovers of your law have great peace;
they never stumble.

The lovers of your law have great peace.

I await your saving help, O Lord,
I fulfil your commands.
I obey your precepts and your will;
all that I do is before you.

The lovers of your law have great peace.

Gospel Mark 12:35 – 37

Later, while teaching in the Temple, Jesus said, ‘How can the scribes maintain that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit at my right hand
and I will put your enemies
under your feet.

David himself calls him Lord, in what way then can he be his son?’ And the great majority of the people heard this with delight.

Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible

Friday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time

From: 2 Timothy 3:10-17

Preventing Error From Doing Harm
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[10] Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, [11] my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. [12] Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [13] while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived.

Staying True to Scripture
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[14] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it [15] and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [16] All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Commentary:

10-13. Unlike those who were opposing St Paul's teachings, Timothy is commended for his faithfulness and is offered practical advice on how to cope with difficulties. To encourage him, Paul recalls his own experience (with which Timothy, a native of Lystra, was very familiar). In his first letter (cf. 1 Thess 3:2-3 and note) he already made the point and now he repeats it: "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Thanks to suffering we can obtain a share in the victory won by Christ. "Christ has overcome the world definitively by his Resurrection. Yet, because of the relationship between the Resurrection and his Passion and death, he has at the same time overcome the world by his suffering [...]. Through the Resurrection, he manifests the victorious power of suffering, and he wishes to imbue with the conviction of this power the hearts of those whom he chose as Apostles and those whom he continually chooses and sends forth" (Bl. John Paul II, "Salvifici Doloris", 25).

14-15. "Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed": this is sound advice -- that Timothy should not relinquish the truth which he learned from his mother and from the Apostle: "Religion, of its nature, must be passed on in its entirety to children with the same fidelity as it has been received by the parents themselves; we have no right to take religion and do with it what we will; rather, it is we who must follow religion wherever it leads us" (St Vincent of Lerins, "Commonitorium", 5).

Assiduous meditation on the Word of God and reflection on our experience in the light of faith make for deeper understanding of revealed truth; but the essential meaning of the truths of faith does not change, because God does not contradict himself. Progress in theology consists in obtaining this deeper understanding of the content of Revelation and relating it to the needs and the insights of people in each culture and period of history. In this connection Paul VI wrote: "We also insisted on the grave responsibility incumbent upon us, but which we share with our Brothers in the Episcopate, of preserving unaltered the content of the Catholic faith which the Lord entrusted to the Apostles. While being translated into all expressions, this content must be neither impaired nor mutilated. While being clothed with the outward forms proper to each people, and made explicit by theological expression which takes account of different cultural, social and even racial milieu it must remain the content of the Catholic faith just exactly as the ecclesial Magisterium has received it and transmits it" ("Evangelii Nuntiandi", 65).

16. Due to the conciseness of the Greek language (which often omits the verb "to be"), this verse can also be translated as "All scripture inspired by God is profitable"; cf. the RSV note. Paul is explicitly stating here that all the books of the Bible are inspired by God, and are therefore of great help to the Church in its mission.

The books of Sacred Scripture enjoy special authority because "the divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their powers and faculties so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. Since, therefore, all that the inspired authors, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scripture" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 11).

Therefore, the Bible is very useful in preaching and teaching, in theological research and for one's own spiritual advancement and that of others. Referring to the training of future priests, the Second Vatican Council recommends that they "receive a most careful training in Holy Scripture, which should be the soul, as it were, of all theology" ("Optatam Totius", 16).

St Gregory the Great has this to say about Scripture's usefulness "for teaching": "Anyone preparing to preach in the right way needs to take his points from the Sacred Scriptures in order to ensure that everything he says is based on divine authority" ("Moralia", 18, 26). And the same Father says elsewhere: "What is Sacred Scripture if not a kind of letter from almighty God to his creature? [...] Therefore, please study and reflect on the words of your Creator every day. Learn what the will of God is by entering deep into the words of that God, so as to desire divine things more ardently and set your soul aflame with great year- ning for heavenly delights" ("Epistula ad Theodorum Medicum", 5, 31).

Scripture is also profitable "for reproof", St Jerome writes: "Read the divine Scriptures very often, or, to put it better, never let sacred reading matter out of your hands. Learn what it has to teach, keep a firm hold on the word of faith which accords with doctrine, so as to be able to exhort others with sound doctrine and win over your opponents" ("Ad Nepoitanum", 7).

17. "Man of God": see the note on 1 Tim 6:11. This description shows the basis of a priest's dignity. "The priestly vocation is invested with a dignity and greatness which has no equal on earth. St Catherine of Siena put these words on Jesus' lips: 'I do not wish the respect which priests should be given to be in any way diminished; for the reverence and respect which is shown them is not referred to them but to Me, by virtue of the Blood which I have given to them to administer. Were it not for this, you should render them the same reverence as lay people and no more....you must not offend them; by offending them you offend Me and not them. Therefore I forbid it and I have laid it down that you shall not touch my Christs" (St. J. Escriva, "In Love with the Church", 38).

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From: Mark 12:35-37

Christ the Son and Lord of David
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[35] And as Jesus taught in the temple, He said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? [36] David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared,
'The Lord said to the Lord,
Sit at My right hand,
till I put Thy enemies under Thy feet'.
[37] David himself calls Him Lord; so how is He his son?" And the throng heard Him gladly.

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Commentary:

35-37. Jesus here bears witness, with His special authority, to the fact that Scripture is divinely inspired, when He says that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit when writing Psalm 110. We can see from here that Jews found it difficult to interpret the beginning of the Psalm. Jesus shows the messianic sense of the words "The Lord said to my Lord": the second "Lord" is the Messiah, with whom Jesus implicitly identifies Himself. The mysteriously transcendental character of the Messiah is indicated by the paradox of His being the son, the descendant, of David, and yet David calls Him his Lord. Cf. note on Matthew 22:41-46.

[Note on Matthew 22:41-46 states:

41-46. God promised King David that one of his descendants would reign forever (2 Samuel 7:12ff); this was obviously a reference to the Messiah, and was interpreted as such by all Jewish tradition, which gave the Messiah the title of "Son of David". In Jesus' time this messianic title was understood in a very nationalistic sense: the Jews were expecting an earthly king, a descendant of David, who would free them from Roman rule. In this passage Jesus shows the Pharisees that the Messiah has a higher origin: He is not only "Son of David"; His nature is more exalted than that, for He is the Son of God and transcends the purely earthly level. The reference to Psalm 110:1 which Jesus uses in His argument explains that the Messiah is God: which is why David calls Him Lord -- and why He is seated at the right hand of God, His equal in power, majesty and glory (cf. Acts of the Apostles 33-36; 1 Corinthians 6:25).]

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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.

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