CCC Cross Reference:
Gn 2:7 362, 369, 703; Gn 2:8 378; Gn 2:15 378; Gn 2:17 376, 396, 396, 400, 1006, 1008
Ps 104 288; Ps 104:27 2828; Ps 104:30 292, 703
Mk 7:14-23 574; Mk 7:18-21 582; Mk 7:21 1764
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Back to SOW II '19
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Reading 1
Gn 2:4b-9, 15-17
At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens
while as yet there was no field shrub on earth
and no grass of the field had sprouted,
for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth
and there was no man to till the soil,
but a stream was welling up out of the earth
and was watering all the surface of the ground
the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and he placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The LORD God then took the man
and settled him in the garden of Eden,
to cultivate and care for it.
The LORD God gave man this order:
"You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden
except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
From that tree you shall not eat;
the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30
R. (1a) O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
All creatures look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Gospel
Mk 7:14-23
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile."
When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
"Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?"
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
"But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Genesis 2:4-9,15-17
At the time when the Lord God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. The Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then the Lord God gave the man this admonition, ‘You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.’
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 103(104):1-2,27-30
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in light as in a robe!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
All of these look to you
to give them their food in due season.
You give it, they gather it up:
you open your hand, they have their fill.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
You take back your spirit, they die,
returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the earth.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Gospel Mark 7:14-23
Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Wednesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
From: Genesis 2:4b-9; 15-17
The Creation of Adam
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[4] In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, [5] when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up--for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; [6] but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground--[7] then the Lord God formed man of dust from, the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Man in Paradise
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[8] And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. [9] And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[15] The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. [16] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."
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Commentary:
2:5-6. These verses are designed to show that the first and most important thing on earth is man, on whose behalf all other things were made. The text does not discuss whether any other types of vegetative or animal life existed on the planet prior to man's appearance on the scene--much less whether any type of evolution into higher forms could have taken place.
Giving due weight to the data of faith and to scientific discoveries about the evolution of species, Catholic theology is not opposed to the idea that God could have infused a soul into an already-existing being, having previously prepared a body to suit it, thereby making it a man . This way of explaining things is called "moderate evolutionism". In this connection, John Paul II, in his 22 October 1996 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, after recalling the teachings of Pius XlI's 1950 encyclical "Humani Generis", pointed out that recent advances in scholarship "lead one no longer to regard the theory of evolution as a mere hypothesis". But at the same time he said that there is not just one "theory of evolution" but a number of such theories, and he indicated which ones are contrary to faith: "The theories of evolution which, in line with the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit as something that emerges from the forces of living matter or as a mere epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man" (ibid.).
So, it is not only "a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being called 'God'?" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 284).
2:7. As far as his body is concerned, man belongs to the earth. To affirm this, the sacred writer must have been always conscious of the fact that when a person dies, his/her body will turn into dust, as Genesis 3:19 will in due course tell us. Or it may be that this sort of account (a special one like the literary genre of all these chapters) is based on the similarity between the word "adam", which means man in general, and "adamah", which means "reddish soil"; and given that the words look alike, the sacred writer may have drawn the conclusion that there is in fact a connection between the two very things (unsophisticated etymology goes in for this sort of thing). But the fact that man belongs to the earth is not his most characteristic feature: as the author sees it, animals too are made up of the stuff of the earth. What makes man different is the fact that he receives his life from God. Life is depicted here in terms of breathing, because only living animals: breathe. he fact that God infuses life into man in this way means that although man on account of his corporeal nature is material, his existence as a living being comes directly from God, that is, it is animated by a vital principle--the soul or the spirit-- which does not derive from the earth. This principle of life received from God also endows man's body with its own dignity and puts it on a higher level than that of animals.
God is portrayed as a potter who models man's body in clay; this means that man is supposed to live in accordance with a source of life that is higher than that deriving from matter The image of God as a potter shows that man (all of him) is in God's hands just like clay in a potter's hands; he should not resist or oppose God's will (cf Is 29:16; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:20-21).
2:8-15. Here we have a scenario in which God and man are friends; there is no such thing as evil or death. The garden is described as being a leafy oasis, with the special feature of having two trees in the center, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil--symbolizing the power to give life, and the ultimate reference-point for man's moral behavior. Out of the garden flow the four rivers the author is most familiar with; these water the entire earth and make it fertile. What the Bible is teaching here is that man was created to be happy, to enjoy the life and goodness which flow from God. "The Church interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition teaches that our first parents, Adam Eve, were constituted in an original 'state of holiness and justice' (Council of Trent, "De Peccato Originali"). This grace of original holiness was 'to share in...divine life' ("Lumen Gentium", 2)" ("Catechism the Catholic Church", 375).
>From the outset, man is charged with cultivating the garden--working it, protecting it and making it bear fruit. Here again we can see that work is a commission that God gives man from the start. "From the beginning of creation man has had to work," St J. Escriva said. 'This not something that I have invented. It is enough to turn to the opening pages the Bible. There you can read that, before sin entered the world, and in its wake death, punishment and misery (cf. Rom 5:12). God made Adam from the clay the earth, and created for him and descendants this beautiful world we live in, "ut operaretur et custodiret illum" (Gen 2:15), so that we might cultivate it and look after it" ("Friends of God", 57). But man needs to recognize God's mastery over creation and over himself by obeying the commandment God gives him as a kind of covenant, telling him not to eat the forbidden fruit. If man lost the original happiness he was created to enjoy (the writer will later explain), it was because he broke that covenant.
2:16-17. The fact that man had access to the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" means that God left the way open to the possibility of evil in order to ensure a greater good--the freedom which is man's endowment. By using his reason and following his conscience, man is able to discern what is good and what is evil; but he himself cannot "make" something good or evil. So, God's command to our first parents implies that they have a duty to recognize that they are creatures and have a duty to reverence and respect goodness, as reflected in the laws of creation and in the dignity proper to man as a person. Were man to want to decide on good and evil for himself, ignoring the goodness God impressed on things when he created them, it would mean man wanted to be like God. Man is always being tempted towards absolute moral autonomy--and he gives in to that temptation when he forgets that there exists a God who is the Creator and Lord of all, man included.
"The tree of the knowledge of good and evil," John Paul II comments, "was to express and constantly remind man of the 'limit' impassable for a created being" ("Dominum Et Vivificantem", 36).
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From: Mark 7:14-23
What Defiles a Man
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[14] And [Jesus] called the people to meet Him, and said to them, "Hear Me, all of you, and understand: [15] there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things that come out of a man are what defile him." [17] And when He had entered the house, and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. [18] And He said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) [20] And He said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.
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Commentary:
15. Some important codices add here: "If any man has ears to hear, let him hear," which would form verse 16.
18-19. We know from Tradition that St. Mark was the interpreter of St. Peter and that, in writing his Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gathered up the Roman catechesis of the head of the Apostles.
The vision which St. Peter had in Joppa (Acts 10:10-16) showed him the full depth of what Jesus teaches here about food. When he returns to Jerusalem, St. Peter himself tells us this in his report on the conversion of Cornelius: "I remembered the word of the Lord" (Acts 11:16). The now non-obligatory character of such prescriptions laid down by God in the Old Testament (cf. Leviticus 11) would have been something St. Peter included in his preaching. For interpretation of this text cf. also note on Matthew 15:10-20.
[Note on Matthew 15:10-20 states:
10-20. Our Lord proclaims the true meaning of moral precepts and makes it clear that man has to answer to God for his actions. The scribes' mistake consisted in concentrating on externals and not giving pride of place to interior purity of heart. For example they saw prayer in terms of exact recital of fixed forms of words rather than as a raising of the soul to God (cf. Matthew 6:5-6). The same thing happened in the case of dietary regulations.
Jesus avails Himself of the particular cases dealt with in this passage to teach us where to find the true center of moral action: it lies in man's personal decision, good or evil, a decision which is shaped in his heart and which then is expressed in the form of action. For example, the sins which our Lord lists are sins committed in the human heart prior to being acted out. In the Sermon on the Mount He already said this: "Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).]
20-23. "In order to help us understand divine things, Scripture uses the expression 'heart' in its full meaning, as the summary and source, expression and ultimate basis, of one's thoughts, words and actions" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 164).
The goodness or malice, the moral quality, of our actions does not depend on their spontaneous, instinctive character. The Lord Himself tells us that sinful actions can come from the human heart.
We can understand how this can happen if we realize that, after original sin, man "was changed for the worse" in both body and soul and was, therefore, prone to evil (cf. Council of Trent, "De Peccato Originali"). Our Lord here restores morality in all its purity and intensity.
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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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