Year A

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

The metaphor that Isaiah uses to characterize the love that God has for the people is extraordinary. It compares this love to the relationship between a mother and the nursing child of her womb. Such a metaphor could have been considered presumptuous had it not been placed by the prophet in the mouth of God. It is improbable, though possible, that a woman would forget the child of her flesh. However, God will never forget this people. Therefore, though Zion may feel abandoned and forgotten, it is only a feeling; it is not a fact. God’s attachment to the people will never be severed.

Paul speaks about ministerial accountability and judgment. Stewards were responsible for the goods of the household of another. Paul claims that as such a steward he is indeed trustworthy. He has committed himself wholeheartedly to the proclamation of the gospel, to the distribution of the mysteries of God, and he stands by this claim regardless of what others might think. Acknowledging that he is obliged to give an account of his stewardship, he insists that it is the Lord who will be his judge. Such judgment is bound to be much more demanding than mere human judgment. Human beings can be wrong, but the Lord knows the motives of the heart.

Jesus is not naive about the human need for food and clothing and shelter and material support. Nor does he advocate passivity or laziness in the face of hard work. He is talking about setting one’s priorities straight, appreciating humankind’s place in the natural world, trusting in the goodness and providence of God. He uses two examples from nature to demonstrate what he means: God’s care for birds and God’s artistry in clothing the lilies. The point of this teaching is confidence in God. People prone to anxiety need to be reminded that they are precious in God’s eyes and they must learn to trust in God’s providence.

Jan 14 2025

Being Holy

A 2006 movie called Love, Actually has one of the best openings in recent years. It begins with two young people running toward each other and falling into each other’s arms, kissing joyfully. Then you see a mother being hugged by her two little girls, then two older women, perhaps sisters, embracing. As these scenes give way to others, you become aware all this takes place in an airport at the arrivals gate. Accompanying these images is a voiceover.

Whenever he feels down about the condition of the world, the speaker goes to the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport in London. Despite the fact that there is so much hatred and greed in the world, he says, Heathrow is one place where things seem different. At Heathrow love is everywhere.

All the while you hear this voice, you are watching people rush into each other’s arms. For a full minute you see the world as a welcoming, warm, loving place. You know it’s something of a set-up because who goes to meet people at airports other than family, good friends, people in a loving relationship? But isn’t this God’s plan for the world, what God wants most from us: love God; love one another.

The voiceover concludes by noting that right before the planes hit the Twin Towers in New York City, all the calls that went out were messages of love. People chose to have their final words be professions of love. Making that choice on a daily basis is what makes us perfect—that is, full-grown, complete, holy.

Consider/Discuss

Do you accept Jesus’ idea of what it means to be “perfect”?
If there is someone who has given me reason not to love them, can I pray for them?

Responding to the Word

We pray to God to continue to pour the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can love with God’s own love, when our own ability to love fails us. We pray that we can grow into that full maturity that we see in Jesus, who prayed for his enemies from the cross.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

A life of holiness is patterned after the holiness of God. It requires integrity, honesty, and faithfulness. To be holy as God is holy, we must refrain from nursing hatred in our hearts; we must rebuke wrongdoers or we will share their guilt; we must not entertain vengeance; and we must love others as we love ourselves. These very demanding directives give us a glimpse into the holiness of God. Furthermore, they are all communal in nature. In other words, our likeness to God is determined by the way we relate to others.

For Paul, the temple is the collection of people who gather in God’s name. Just as the presence of God made the Jerusalem temple holy, so the Spirit’s presence in the people makes this new temple holy. Paul returns to an earlier discussion about the wisdom of this world (see last Sunday’s second reading). As valuable as human insight might be, it is nothing compared with God’s wisdom. Boasting refers to the false pride that the Corinthians took in identifying with various religious leaders. Such boasting is evidence of the wisdom of the world, a wisdom that threatened the unity of the Corinthian community.

Jesus addresses the way that disciples are to interact in any strained relationships. He instructs his disciples to offer no resistance when someone tries to take advantage of them. He employs Near Eastern exaggeration to make his point. The disciples are told to disarm others with their willingness to go beyond what is required of them. Jesus then reinterprets the law of love in a most radical manner, telling his disciples that they must love their enemies. He insists that the disciples’ love must be patterned after God’s love, which is given unquestioningly to the just and the unjust alike. The final exhortation succinctly sets the standard for life in the kingdom of heaven. “[B]e perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). It is this standard that makes Jesus’ interpretation of the law so radical.

Jan 14 2025

Blessed Are They Who Walk in the Law of the Lord

We live in a country where we prize our freedom, cling to our right to choose, and even define our homeland as “the land of the free.” Today’s scriptures remind us that along with rights come responsibilities. We are to respond to our God who made us and calls us to be a people of the new covenant, ratified by the saving death of God’s Son on the cross.

“If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you,” says Ben Sira (Sirach 15:15). For the Jewish people the law was a blessing and those who chose to keep the law would be blessed with life. That choice is still before us today.

Jesus’ teachings reveal his wisdom in understanding the law of the Mosaic covenant. His grasp of what was at the heart of the law can be clearly found in the long form of today’s Gospel. While there is an option for a shorter version, spend some time with the longer reading (Matthew 5:17–37).

We are to live as kin in what has been called the “kin-dom” of God. In a world that justifies preventative strikes, Jesus forbids not only killing but even getting angry and bearing a grudge. He teaches that reconciliation takes priority over worship, that the prohibition against adultery extends even to looking with lust at another, reducing a person to an object for self-gratification. Finally, he asks us not to swear but to speak with simplicity and integrity.

Some might dismiss all this as impossible to achieve. But, as a young virgin was once told: “[N]othing will be impossible for God” (Luke 1:37).

Consider/Discuss

How does the “law of the Lord” influence my life?
Do I consider God’s law as increasing or limiting my freedom?
Can I accept the “bottom line” that Jesus is asking of his disciples?

Responding to the Word

We can pray for the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand what is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings, and that we both discern what God asks of us and respond wholeheartedly. Thus we witness to others what it means to walk in the law of the Lord.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

The legitimacy of the instruction from Sirach is grounded in the theology of retribution, which maintains that wise or righteous living will result in happiness or blessing, and foolish or depraved living will meet with misfortune or punishment. Today’s reading addresses human freedom and human choice. The eyes of God look on the righteous with pleasure, just as the righteous look to God in fidelity. Although it is God’s desire that all will live in conformity to the order established, God has predestined no one to sin or to blessedness. All have been given freedom of choice. It is up to us to use it wisely.

Paul contrasts the wisdom of the gospel with the wisdom of this age. The plan of God was hidden in the past, but is clearly revealed in the present. The mature are those who have entered into the dying and rising of Christ by accepting the wisdom of the gospel. Everything hinges on the essential mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul maintains that if the rulers of this world had known that the glory of God resided in the man Jesus, they would not have crucified him. However, they should have known, because Jesus did not keep this secret.

Although Jesus’ teaching was based on the common tradition of Israel, his interpretations were so unprecedented that some accused him of having rejected that tradition. Jesus insists that his interpretations really offer the fuller meaning of the tradition. The contrast that Jesus sets up is not between himself and the law, but between his interpretation of the law and that of the scribes and Pharisees. He criticizes them for insisting on the minutiae of the law at the expense of the righteousness that is at its heart. Jesus demands much more than mere external conformity. Whether it is harmony in the community, fidelity in marriage, or faithfulness to one’s word, Jesus calls for radical commitment.