AUGUST 4
612 SAINT JOHN MARY VIANNEY,
PRIEST MEMORIAL
CCC Cross Reference:
Mt 9:38 2611
From the Common of Pastors, p. 1817, OR
FIRST READING
Ezekiel 3:17-21
The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman
for the house of Israel.
When you hear a word from my mouth,
you shall warn them for me.
If I say to the wicked man,
You shall surely die;
and you do not warn him or speak out
to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live:
the wicked man shall die for his sins,
but I will hold you responsible for his death.
If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man,
yet he has not turned away from his evil
nor from his wicked conduct,
then he shall die for his sin,
but you shall save your life.
If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong
when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die.
He shall die for his sin,
and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered;
but I will hold you responsible for his death
if you did not warn him.
When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin,
and he has in fact not sinned,
he shall surely live because of the warning,
and you shall save your own life.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 117:1bc, 2
R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
GOSPEL
Matthew 9:35-10:1
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds,
his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest."
Then he summoned his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits
to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Ezekiel, a watchman for the house of Israel
[16] and at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord cam to me; [17] "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. [18] I I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will require at your hand. [19] But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life. [20] Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not waned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. [21] Never the less if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved our life."
Commentary on Ezekiel 3:17-21
3:16-21. A "watchman for the houe of Israel" (v. L7). A watchman was the person charged with protecting the people by warning them of any sudden attack (cf. 2 Sam 18:24; Ps 127:1 ). The prophet, as a watchman (cf. Is 21:6; Hos 9:8; Hab 2: 1), must keep guard and warn his hearers of impending danger (cf. Is 52: 8; 56:10; Jer 6:17). If they fail to listen, it will be their own fault; but if the prophet keeps quiet , or delivers the wrong message, then he will be to blame for what happens. St Gregory Nazianzen applies this teaching to a pastor's readi ness to obey the word of God: "If the pastor fears the responsibility of the task he has been entrusted with, the rule of obedience will be a help to him: God will reward his trust and perfect his work if the pastor places all his hope in Him. But if he is tempted to disobey, I know not who can help him or in what he can put his trust. We run the risk of hearing said of us, in relation to the people who have been entrusted to our care: his blood I will require at your hand (Ezek 3: I X ( Apologetica [Oratio 2], 113).
Later , at the start of the second stage of his ministry, in a passage which some term the "account of his new call”, Ezekiel himself will stress the watchman theme (33:1- 9). There, too, the doctrine of personal responsibility comes up. St. Gregory the Great develops the idea of the preacher as watchman; he points out among other things: "The life and work of a sentry should take place on high, and that it should be prudent: on high, so that he may rise above earthly things; and prudent, so that he will not be struck down by the arrow of the enemy. Moreover, he must lead his listeners to high ground and by his words set their hearts on the path of righteousness toward their heavenly homeland" ( Homiliae in Ezechielem Prophetam, 1.11.7).
Matthew 9:35- 10:1
The need for good pastors
[35]And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom , and healing every disease and every infirmity. [36]When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37]Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; [38]pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers in to his harvest.”
10 The calling of the twelve apostles
[1] And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirit, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity.
Commentary:
9:35. The Second Vatican Council uses this passage when teaching about the message of Christian charity which the Church should always be spreading : "Christian charity is extended to all with out distinction of race, social condition or religion, and seeks neither gain nor gratitude. Just as God loves us with a gratuitous love, so too the faithful, in their charity, should be concerned for mankind, loving it with that same love with which God sought man . As Christ went about all the towns and villages healing every sickness and infirmity, as a sign that the Kingdom of God had come, so the Church, through its children, joins itself with men of every condition, but especially with the poor and afflicted, and willingly spends herself for them " (Ad gentres, 12).
9:36. "He had compassion for them": the Greek verb is very expressive; it means "he was deeply moved". Jesus was moved when he saw the people, because their pastors, instead of guiding them and tending them, led them astray, behaving more like wolves than genuine shepherds of their flock. Jesus sees the prophecy of Ezekiel 34 as now being fulfilled; in that passage God, through the prophet , upbraids the false shepherds of Israel and promises to send them the Messiah to be their new leader.
"If we were consistent with our faith when we looked around us and contemplated the world and its history, we would be unable to avoid feeling in our own hearts the same sentiment s that filled the heart of our Lord" (St J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 1 33 ). Reflection on the spiritual nee ds of the world should lead us to be tirelessly apostolic.
9:37-38. After contemplating the crowds neglected by their shepherds, Jesus uses the image of the harvest to show us that that same crowd is ready to receive the effec ts o f Redemption: " I te ll yo u, lift up your eyes, and see now the fields are already white for harvest" (Jn 4:3 5 ). The field of the Jewish people cultivated by the prophets- most recently by John the Baptist- is full of ripe wheat. In farmwork, the harvest is lost if the farmer does not reap at the right time; down the centuries the Church fee ls a similar nee d to be out harvesting because there is a big harvest ready to be won.
However, as in the time of Jesus, there is a shortage of labourers. Our Lord tells us how to deal with this: we should pray God, the Lord of the harvest, to send the necessary labourers. If a Christian prays hard, it is difficult to imagine his not feeling urged to play his part in this apostolate. In obeying this commandment to pray for labourers, we should pray especially for there to be no lack of good shepherd s, who will be able to equip others with the necessary means of sanctification needed to back up the apostolate.
In this connexon Paul VI reminds us: "the responsibility for spreading the Gospel that saves belongs to everyone to all those who have received it! The missionary duty concerns the whole body of the Church; in different ways and to different degrees, it is true, but we must all of us be united in carrying out this duty. Now let the conscience of every believer ask himself: Have I carried out my missionary duty? Prayer for the Missions is the first way of fulfilling this duty" (Angelus Address, 23 October 19 77).
10:1-4. Jesus calls his twelve apostles after recommending to them to pray to the Lord to send labourers into his harvest (cf. Mt 9:38). Christians' apostolic action should always, then, be preceded and accompanied by a life of constant prayer: apostolate is a divine affair, not a merely human one . Our Lord starts his Church by calling twelve men to be, as it were, twelve patriarchs of the new people of God, the Church. This new people is established not by physical but by spiritual generation. The names of those apostles are specifically mentioned here . They were not scholarly, powerful or important people: they were average, ordinary people who responded faithfully to the grace of their calling-all of them, that is, except Judas Iscariot. Even before his death and resurrection Jesus confers on them the power to cast out unclean spirits and cure illnesses- as an earnest of and as training for the saving miss ion which he will entrust to them .
The Church reveres these first Christians in a very special way and is proud to carry on their supernatural mission, and to be faithful to the witness they bore to the teaching of Christ. The true Church is absent unless there is un interrupted apostolic succession and identification with the spirit which the apostles made their own.
"Apostle": this word means "sent"; Jesus sent them out to preach his Kingdom and pass on his teaching. The Second Vatican Council, in line with Vatican I, " confesses " and "declares" that the Church has a hierarchical structure : "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. Mk 3:13- 19; Mt 10:1- 10). The se apostles (cf. Lk 6:13) he constituted in the permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. Jn 21 : 15- 17 ). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all peoples (cf. Rom 1: 16), so that, sharing in his power, they might make all peoples his d isciples and sanctify and govern them (cf. Mt 28:16-20; Mk 16:1 5; Lk 24:45-48; Jn 20:21- 23) 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. Mt 28:28)" (lumen gentium, 19).
10:1. In this chapter St Matthew describes how Jesus , with a view to the spreading of the Kingdom of God which, he inaugurates, decide s to establish a Church, which he does by giving special powers and training to these twelve men who are its seed.
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