617 SAINT DOMINIC, PRIEST MEMORIAL
CCC Cross Reference:
1 Cor 2:7-16 221; 1 Cor 2:7-9 1998; 1 Cor 2:8 446, 498, 598; 1 Cor 2:9 1027; 1 Cor 2:10-15 2038; 1 Cor 2:10-11 152
Ps 96:2 2143
Lk 9:58 544
From the Common of Pastors: For Missionaries, p. 1817, or the Common of Holy Men and Women: For Religious, p. 1880,
OR
FIRST READING
1 Corinthians 2:1-10a
When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.
Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature,
but not a wisdom of this age,
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.
Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden,
which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,
and which none of the rulers of this age knew;
for, if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a,10
R. (3) Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
GOSPEL
Luke 9:57-62
As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey
someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
He said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading
1 Corinthians 2:1-10
Brothers, when I came to you, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God.
But still we have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity: not a philosophy of our age, it is true, still less of the masters of our age, which are coming to their end. The hidden wisdom of God which we teach in our mysteries is the wisdom that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. It is a wisdom that none of the masters of this age have ever known, or they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory; we teach what scripture calls: the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.
These are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 95(96):1-3,7-8,10
Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name.
Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
Proclaim his help day by day,
tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
Give the Lord, you families of peoples,
give the Lord glory and power;
give the Lord the glory of his name.
Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’
The world he made firm in its place;
he will judge the peoples in fairness.
Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
Gospel
Luke 9:57-62
As Jesus and his disciples travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
Another to whom he said, ‘Follow me’, replied, ‘Let me go and bury my father first.’ But he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’
Another said, ‘I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
From: 1 Corinthians 2:1-10
St. Paul's Preaching in Corinth
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[1] When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. [2] For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. [3] And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; [4] and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, [5] that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Divine wisdom
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[6] Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. [7] But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. [8] None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. [9] But, as it is written,
"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him,"
[10] God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
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Commentary:
1-3. The Apostle had come to Corinth from Athens, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles (17:16-34); in that city he had not made many converts, despite his brilliant discourse in the Areopagus. This fact, and the moral corruption of Corinthian society, may explain his arriving "in much fear and trembling" (v. 3); he must have felt that he had a difficult task ahead of him. As it turned out, he must have met many difficulties: our Lord appeared to him at night in a vision to comfort and encourage him: "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you" (Acts 18:9-10). St Paul, therefore, putting no reliance on care- fully argued speeches, proclaims Christ crucified, to make sure that faith is grounded on God alone.
St Paul sums up his entire message here "Jesus Christ and him crucified". The Church, on whom it devolves to continue the mission of the Apostles, does nothing but make Jesus Christ known: "Our spirit is set in one direction," Pope John Paul II reminds us; "the only direction for our intellect, will and heart is towards Christ our Redeemer, towards Christ, the Redeemer of man. We wish to look towards him because there is salvation in no one else but him, the Son of God -- repeating what Peter said, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life' (Jn 6:68) [...]. The Church lives his mystery, draws unwearyingly from it and continually seeks ways of bringing this mystery of her Master and Lord to mankind--to the peoples, the nations, the succeeding generations, and every individual human being--as if she were ever repeating, as the Apostle did, 'For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Cor 2:2). The Church stays within the sphere of the mystery of the Redemption, which has become the fundamental principle of her life and mission" ("Redemptor Hominis", 7).
Every Christian, for his part, should try to see that those around him "desire to know Jesus Christ and him crucified and that they be firmly convinced and with the most heartfelt piety and devotion believe that no other name under heaven has been given to men by which we may be saved (cf. Acts 4:12), since he is the expiation for our sins (cf. 1 Jn 2:2)" ("St Pius V Catechism", Introduction, 10).
4-5. Just as Paul's preaching did not rely on eloquence, so too faith must not be based on human wisdom (cf. note on 1 Cor 1:20-25). He says that he based his message on "demonstration of the Spirit and power" -- probably a reference to the powerful action of divine grace on those who listened to his preaching, with grace manifesting itself in conversions and extraordinary charisms. This power of God explains how they came to believe.
God continues to act through the Christian message, which "is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people's salvation. It is the beauty of the Revelation that it represents. It brings with it a wisdom that is not of this world. It is able to stir up by itself faith--faith that rests on the power of God (cf. 1 Cor 2:5). It is truth. It merits having the apostle consecrate to it all his time and all his energies, and to sacrifice for it, if necessary, his own life" (Paul VI "Evangelic Nuntiandi", 5).
6-8. After showing that the wisdom of the world serves no purpose and that people need to submit to the cross of Christ, the Apostle teaches that the Gospel is not contrary to reason; only, the wisdom it holds is much more profound, it is divine wisdom. This is the wisdom he spreads “among the mature”, the “perfect”, that is, those Christians who are well established in the faith, as distinct from the “babes” referred to in 3:1, who still have need of brilliant arguments. These mature Christians St Paul is referring to are not an inner core of privileged people, for all the baptized are called to attain full knowledge of the Son of God (cf. Eph 4:11-16).
This wisdom is completely foreign to this world, this age, and its rulers, that is, those who are responsible for the evil in the world: there is a reference here both to those who directly caused our Lord’s death (the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate: cf. v. 8), and to the devil and the fallen angels, as can be seen from similar New Testament references (cf. Lk 4:6; Jn 12:31; Eph 2:2).
“Secret and hidden”: a reference to the content of divine wisdom and to its revelation. It means the same as God’s plan of salvation, which extends to all men -- including the Gentiles (cf. Eph 3:6-8) and, in some way, to all creation (Eph 1:10); man can never completely grasp its meaning, just as he can never totally understand God; however, this secret and hidden wisdom can be known by means of Revelation (cf. Lk 8:10; Col 1:26), which we are given in Christ (cf. Rom 16:25-26;Eph 1:8-10; 3:3-7; Col 1:26-27), even though we can only fully grasp it in heaven. There are, therefore, three ways of looking at this wisdom-mystery-salvation: it is part of God’s plans from all eternity; it is manifested in Revelation and especially in Jesus Christ, who died and is risen; we attain it partially in this life and fully in heaven.
“Lord of glory”: here St Paul attributes to Christ on the cross a title which the Old Testament reserved for God alone (cf. Ex 24:15; 40:34; Is 42:8), thereby making it clear that Jesus Christ is God, equal to the Father.
9. These words of Isaiah 64:2-3 sum up the content of God’s plan -- all those gifts which man’s mind cannot grasp (cf. Eph 3:19) and which God has had ready from all eternity for those who love him. These gifts are nothing less than God’s love for men.
Because these gifts are only fully attained in the next life, Christian tradition sees in these words a description of heaven: “How blessed, how marvellous, are the gifts of God. Some of them, indeed, already lie within our comprehension – the life that knows no death, the shining splendour of righteousness, truth in freedom, trusting faith, the holiness of chastity. But what of the things that God has prepared for those who hope in him? Only the Creator and Father of eternity knows them. Let us strive earnestly to be counted among those who wait patiently in order to earn a share in his promised gifts” (St Clement of Rome, “First Letter to the Corinthians”, 35).
And the “Pius V Catechism”, for its part, teaches that “With this truth, the minds of the faithful should be deeply impressed -- that the happiness of the saints is full to overflowing of all those pleasures which can be enjoyed or even desired in this life, whether they have to do with the powers of the mind or of the perfection of the body; although this must be in a manner more exalted than, to use the Apostle’s words, eye has seen, ear heard, or the heart of man conceived” (I, 13, 12).
10-12. “God has revealed to us through the Spirit”: meaning the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, “which is from God” (v. 12) and knows the very depths of God (vv. 10-11). These words reveal to us the divinity of the Holy Spirit; knowing a person implies having intimacy with him; the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God because by nature he is God, equal to the Father and the Son (cf. Mt 11:25). “The Holy Spirit is equally God with the Father and the Son, equally omnipotent and eternal, infinitely perfect, the supreme good, infinitely wise, and of the same nature as the Father and the Son [. . .]. Scripture also attributes to him the power to sanctify, to vivify, to search the depths of God, to speak through the Prophets, and to be present in all places -- all of which can be attributed to God alone” (“St Pius V Catechism”, I, 9, 4).
Jesus had told his Apostles that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (Jn 16:13); and on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit did open their minds to understand the truth revealed by Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit also acted in St Paul, so that he had the same knowledge of Revelation as the other Apostles (cf. Gal 2:1-10). The same Spirit continues to act in the Church: “The Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth, because he proceeds from the Father, eternal Truth, and the Son, substantial truth, receives from each of them, along with his essence, all truth, which he then communicates to the Church, helping never to err” (Leo XIII, “Divinum illud munus”, 7).
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From: Luke 9:57-62
The Calling of Three Disciples
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[57] As they were going along the road, a man said to Him (Jesus), "I will follow you wherever You go." [58] And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." [59] To another He said, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." [60] But He said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God." [61] Another said, "I will follow You, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." [62] Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God."
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Commentary:
57-62. Our Lord spells out very clearly what is involved in following Him. Being a Christian is not an easy or comfortable affair: it calls for self-denial and for putting God before everything else. See the notes on Matthew 8:18-22 and Matthew 8:22.
[The notes on Matthew 8:18-22 states:
18-22. From the very outset of His messianic preaching, Jesus rarely stays in the same place; He is always on the move. He "has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20). Anyone who desires to be with him has to "follow Him". This phrase "following Jesus" has a very precise meaning: it means being His disciple (cf. Matthew 19:28). Sometimes the crowds "follow Him"; but Jesus' true disciples are those who "follow Him" in a permanent way, that is, who keep on following Him: being a "disciple of Jesus" and "following Him" amount to the same thing. After our Lord's ascension, "following Him" means being a Christian (cf Acts 8:26). By the simple and sublime fact of Baptism, every Christian is called, by a divine vocation, to be a full disciple of our Lord, with all that that involves.
The evangelist here gives two specific cases of following Jesus. In the case of the scribe our Lord explains what faith requires of a person who realizes that he has been called; in the second case--that of the man who has already said "yes" to Jesus--He reminds him of what His commandment entails. The soldier who does not leave his position on the battlefront to bury his father, but instead leaves that to those in the rearguard, is doing his duty. If service to one's country makes demands ike that on a person, all the more reason for it to happen in the service of Jesus Christ and His Church.
Following Christ, then, means we should make ourselves totally available to Him; whatever sacrifice He asks of us we should make: the call to follow Christ means staying up with Him, not falling behind; we either follow Him or lose Him. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus explained what following Him involves -- a teaching which we find summarized in even the most basic catechism of Christian doctrine: a Christian is a man who believes in Jesus Christ -- a faith he receives at Baptism -- and is duty bound to serve Him. Through prayer and friendship with the Lord every Christian should try to discover the demands which this service involves as far as he personally is concerned.]
[The notes on Matthew 8:22 states:
22. "Leave the dead to bury their own dead": although this sounds very harsh, it is a style of speaking which Jesus did sometimes use: here the "dead" clearly refers to those whose interest is limited to perishable things and who have no aspirations towards the things that last forever.
"If Jesus forbade him," St. John Chrysostom comments, "it was not to have us neglect the honor due to our parents, but to make us realize that nothing is more important than the things of Heaven and that we ought to cleave to these and not to put them off even for a little while, though our engagements be ever so indispensable and pressing" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 27).]
We see here the case of the man who wanted to follow Christ, but on one condition--that he be allowed to say goodbye to his family. Our Lord, seeing that he is rather undecided, gives him an answer which applies to all of us, for we have all received a calling to follow Him and we have to try not to receive this grace in vain. "We receive the grace of God in vain, when we receive it at the gate of our heart, and do not let it enter our heart. We receive it without receiving it, that is, we receive it without fruit, since there is no advantage in feeling the inspiration if we do not accept it [...]. It sometimes happens that being inspired to do much we consent not to the whole inspiration but only to some part of it, as did those good people in the Gospel, who upon the inspiration which our Lord gave them to follow Him wished to make reservations, the one to go first and bury his father, the other to go to take leave of his people" (St. Francis de Sales, "Treatise on the Love of God", Book 2, Chapter 11).
Our loyalty and fidelity to the mission God has given us should equip us to deal with every obstacle we meet: "There is never reason to look back (cf. Luke 9:62). The Lord is at our side. We have to be faithful and loyal; we have to face up to our obligations and we will find in Jesus the love and the stimulus we need to understand other people's faults and overcome our own" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 160).
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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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