Ordinary Time

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is praying in a certain place and uses the opportunity for reflection to inform the disciples about his identity and theirs. Jesus clarifies what it means to be God’s messiah (Christ). It means to “suffer greatly,” to endure rejection, then to be killed. The disciples must be willing to take up a cross if they wish to follow Jesus.

The position of these events is instructive. Right before them we read that Jesus had sent the disciples out on a mission during which they had preached and healed (Luke 9:1–6). Upon their return, they witnessed Jesus’ multiplication of the five loaves and two fishes so that five thousand were fed. Moreover, Jesus had told them that they were to do the same: “Give them some food yourselves” (9:13). Thus, the disciples are filled with examples of the power of the ministry that they are to undertake. Lest they think that ministry is a move from power to power, Jesus takes the opportunity to tell them that the way of ministry is the path that he will take from suffering to glory.

The section that follows today’s Gospel reading is about the transfiguration of Jesus, and it is also helpful for determining the significance of today’s readings. Only in Luke’s account of the Transfiguration do we hear that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus about “his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (9:31). These words of theirs pick up Jesus’ exhortation to the disciples that they must come after him by denying themselves and following him (9:23).

Luke would have the disciples realize that they are to exercise a powerful ministry for others while participating in their own exodus by following Jesus. The images of the Exodus and of taking up the cross to follow Jesus imply the rigors of a difficult time filled with suffering. They also imply, however, that the end of the journey is the Promised Land and resurrection.

Dec 16 2024

Grant to Us, O Lord, a Heart Renewed

Nathan’s message to King David could not have been any more pointed: God says, “I have given you all that you have, and you have taken away all that your devoted soldier Uriah had: his wife and his life.’” David acknowledges his sin, confessing his guilt, and God shows mercy, forgiving him.

After hearing Jesus preach, a woman responds with repentance to his message announcing the coming of God’s reign. She comes to the house of Simon the Pharisee to express her grateful heart for all to see. Simon, however, is a harder nut to crack. As Nathan did with David, Jesus tells a story, hoping to penetrate Simon’s judgmental heart. Simon gets the point, but we don’t know whether it stays in his head without reaching his heart.

God sent Jesus to liberate people, to bring them to a fuller life. We see Jesus trying to free both men and women from what imprisons them, and to bring them out of the darkness and into the light of communion with God and with each other. We see how quickly God responds to David’s confession and how appreciatively Jesus speaks of the woman to Simon.

One hopes that Simon came to himself at some point and was able to receive the good news of God’s kingdom so near to his grasp. One hopes he came to know God’s generous forgiveness for his sins, whether many or few, great or small. One hopes he came to recognize Jesus as truly God’s prophet and Son.

Consider/Discuss

Do our “little” sins lead us to be judgmental of others?
Do we know that no sin is beyond God’s forgiveness?

Responding to the Word

You are our forgiving Father who desires to lift any burden caused by sin. Give us the courage to confess honestly what we have done and what we have failed to do. When we sin, save us from despair and keep our eyes on your merciful love, revealed to us by your Son, Jesus.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Nathan chastises David for his adultery. The king is reminded of the blessings that God bestowed upon him. When David took the wife of Uriah, he not only committed adultery with her, but he also cut off Uriah’s line of descent. Uriah’s murder merely brought this fact to completion. The episode also reveals the precarious position that women held in this society. Their procreative potential made them both cherished and vulnerable. The punishment shows clearly that the king may have been chosen by God and lavished with blessings, but he was still accountable to the law like every other Israelite.

Paul contrasts observance of the law with the power of the death and resurrection of Christ. Though faithful to the law during his lifetime, in death Jesus moved out of the realm of the law, and by his resurrection, he moved beyond it. Joined to Jesus, believers die to the law through the death of Jesus and live for God through his resurrection. According to Paul, either justification comes through the law, and then Christ died in vain; or justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and then life according to the law has been transcended.

The dinner to which Jesus was invited must have been either a banquet or a Sabbath meal, because those eating were reclining. The woman had not been invited, yet she seems to have had free access to the dinner, suggesting that it was not a strictly private affair. Because Jesus does not rebuff her, Simon concludes that he does not know that she is a sinner, and consequently, he could not be a prophet. Jesus’ parable shows that he does indeed know about the woman, and he is aware of Simon’s thoughts as well. Jesus’ last words to the woman reveal the progression of her transformation: her faith was the basis of her love; her love was demonstrated in her contrition. Jesus recognized this, and rewarded her.

Dec 16 2024

God’s Eye Is on the Widow

Widows were not merry in the Bible. They were not high on Israel’s scale of social importance, nor on that of other countries in biblical times. A widow was in trouble if she did not have a son or another male in the family to care for her. God’s compassion for widows shines through here.

There is no faith in evidence on the part of either widow. Neither asks Elijah or Jesus to do anything. If anything, the widow of Zarephath blames the prophet for the death of her son: “Why have you done this to me, O man of God?” This could be the grief speaking or an assumption that a foreign prophet’s presence attracted divine attention in some punishing way. But the prophet’s prayer has God restore the child’s life.

Compassion for the widow moves Jesus: “When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ ” Jesus does nothing more than speak to the young man, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” And the dead man sits up, speaking—a nice touch by Luke. The young man returns to life speaking. What were his first words?

One wonders what God makes of our age, when the precarious condition of widows in the past has become the ongoing plight of so many women, young and old, across all cultures in the world. How many see their children die before them, the cost of diseases that could be averted, even cured, or needless wars between genocidal factions?

Consider/Discuss

How would you describe the condition of women in today’s world?
Where and how is Jesus calling us to act today to relieve the plight of women?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, Son of Mary, you befriended the Samaritan woman as well as Martha and Mary. You heard the plea of the Syro-Phoenician woman and raised the widow’s son. You liberated Mary Magdalene from her demons and spoke out for the woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Bless our efforts to serve women in our world.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

As was the custom of the day, the woman in the first account offers hospitality to one in need, but then she suffers misfortune. She links the illness of her son with the entrance of the prophet into their lives. It is not the power from the body of the prophet that restores the boy, but the power of God working through the prophet. When her son is restored to her alive, the woman responds with an act of faith. Her living son is proof that God’s power works through this man of God, in a foreign land, for the benefit of a widow.

Paul admits that he was originally a zealous adherent to the traditions of the ancestors, probably a reference to the oral traditions that the Pharisees developed as they interpreted the scriptures to meet the needs of their time. He certainly knew about Jesus, for he persecuted some of his followers. Paul asserts his independence from other apostles, insisting that he is now a disciple of no one but Jesus Christ. While such insistence reveals a man of strong conviction, it may have been seen by some as arrogant self-confidence. Paul must have realized this, for he credited the grace of God for his change of heart.

Jesus and his disciples encounter a funeral procession leaving the city that they are about to enter. The deceased is the only son of a widowed woman. This is an unusual miracle, for Jesus seems to have performed it out of his own deep emotion rather than in response to someone else’s request or demonstration of faith. The vulnerable position in society of this widow is the same as that of the widow of Zarephath of Sidon in the first reading. Not only is she suffering the grief of loss, she now is also bereft of a legal advocate. The miracle demonstrates the presence of the reign of God in the lives of people who believe.