Year A

Jan 08 2025

Not a Law-destroyer But a Law-fulfiller

In a world of kings and emperors and governors and rulers, how can someone get access to the “big man at the top?” He has many guards. He lives in a mighty palace. You have to know the right people even to get a glimpse of him. Ordinary folks just cannot get access to the “Boss.”

In the same way, the Israelites revered God, the Holy One, as unapproachable, mighty, pure, and majestic, the “biggest (boss) at the top.” They believed that you would die if you saw God. Their reverence was rich and deep. Even Moses, who was the greatest of prophets, only saw where God had passed by. Thus they wondered, how do we get access to the Divine?

How did they solve that “access” question? If you wanted to get to Jerusalem, you followed the road to Jerusalem. If you wanted to get to the God of purity, you followed the road that led you to become pure, for the Most Holy could not look upon sin. How do you become pure? By following the laws of purity. What we may not understand from our vantage point is that observing the law meant everything to the religious people of Jesus’ day—not for the sake of “the law” itself, but because they wanted to be able to approach God. They wanted to come to God with a clean heart. The law was their way to get access to the Most High God.

Jesus understood that theology. When Jesus said that he didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it, he understood their longing: they wanted access to God. That was admirable. Jesus honored that. Moving forward from the written law, he offered himself as the road to the Father: “I am the way.”

Consider/Discuss

St. Paul got into many arguments about the law. He also understood the theology that following the law granted access to the Father. After his conversion, he understood that Jesus was now the way to the Father. The law may not have passed away, but how often do we try to gain access to God’s favor through adherence to law? What does it mean to you for Jesus to be “the Way”?
Reverence for God seems to be on the wane in our culture. Purity is not reverenced much either. How does that cultural attitude affect your own spiritual and moral life? Where do you hold yourself accountable? Where do you feel that you can let yourself slack off?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you have promised us that you are the way of access to the Father. We live in that hope. Help us not to be presumptuous about purity, thinking that we can live any way we choose and you will blithely forgive us. Help us to be perfect as you are perfect, pure as you are pure. We cannot do this on our own. We come through you who are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Lead us to the One who is Unapproachable Radiance!

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

Biblical wisdom literature, as here in Sirach, often talks about the choice between two paths: wisdom or foolishness, life or death. The point of traditional wisdom literature is to make this choice clear and to argue for the way of wisdom and of life. The commands of God are intended also to point toward the way of life. God’s commands are not impossible to fulfill, otherwise they would be unjust. Humans must learn to trust that what God commands is, in fact, the truly good. Sin, in this reading, is failure to trust God and so choose the wrong path.

Although Paul declared that he did not come to the Corinthians speaking wisdom (2:1–5), he now concedes that, in fact, he did come speaking wisdom. But it was not the “wisdom of this age.” Instead, he spoke God’s wisdom, which only those who are “mature” can understand. God’s wisdom is not likely to be persuasive to those who think with the mind of the age rather than with the mind of God (see Romans 12:2). This wisdom is only accessible through the power and gift of the Spirit, who alone comprehends the “mysterious, hidden” plan of God. Paul will go on to insist that it is this same Spirit that the Corinthians have received, so that they may “judge spiritually,” and not according to the wisdom of the world (2:11–15).

Jesus insists to his disciples that he has not come to abrogate a single divine command or prophetic exhortation. Instead, he insists that the law exists not merely to be “observed,” but to be lived. It is intended to point toward and inculcate those dispositions and virtues that together comprise “righteousness.” The way to the kingdom of heaven is not merely to follow the rules, as if they in themselves were the point. Rather it is to become formed into people whose wills reflect the values embodied by the law (which of course does not excuse one from keeping the commandments).

Jan 08 2025

Team “Light for the World!”

My husband and I are season ticket holders for Notre Dame women’s basketball. What we really like to watch is how the players work together as a team. Because women are generally shorter than men, they cannot just run down the court solo and slam the ball into the hoop. They have to work together. Women’s basketball is a team sport.

In today’s reading, Jesus is talking to a team. In the passages “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world,” the “you” is plural. It might be more accurately translated with a southern accent as “y’all are the light of the world.” We are to be a team. We are not tall enough to knock the lights out of “darkness” by ourselves. We have to work together. The Christian life is a team endeavor.

In the readings for the last several weeks, St. Paul has been berating the Corinthians for their lack of solidarity: You fight over privilege and power! You fight over food! You look first to your own interests! Is this Christian team behavior? He can’t change them through persuasive arguments. He points them to the cross of Christ who models for “y’all” a new way to live.

We are called to be a team. How do we conquer the darkness together? Isaiah says, share food with the hungry. Clothe the naked. Satisfy the needs of the wretched. Then, when we (plural) call for help, “the Lord will answer, ‘Here I am’.” Then our light will rise like dawn out of darkness. Our fans in the stands, the saints of heaven who have played this game before us, will cheer as the lights come up; they will “give praise to our Father” and shout out to us, “Go team!”

Consider/Discuss

Sometimes the darkness feels too great. We cannot overcome it by ourselves. Do you ever get discouraged? Where might the Lord be leading you to become a part of a team that makes a difference in this world?
We are to be a team that is light for the world. On any team, some sit on the sidelines and others actively contribute. Are you willing to train hard enough to get into the game? What spiritual exercises do you need to take up to be stronger?

Living and Praying with the Word

Angels and saints in heaven, pray for our solidarity. Even in the Church, we struggle to play and pray together. But in the battle against the darkness, we need each other, all players on the field. Father, Son, and Spirit, you are one. Strengthen us so that we look past our differences and learn to work together to be one as you are one. Help us be light for the world and salt of the earth, to your glory and praise. St. Paul, pray for us as you prayed for the Corinthian community.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

This post-exilic Isaiah passage reflects a time when the full restoration of God’s people in the land had yet to materialize. Agricultural and economic conditions led to a general failure to thrive. The people have complained that, although they have fasted and prayed, God has not responded (58:3). Thus, God’s retort: This is the fast I want—to take care of one another, to remove oppression and injustice from among you. Only when God’s people have attended to these traditional, well-known covenantal expectations will they experience full restoration, when God answers and quickly heals their “wound.” This is God’s desire and final intention.

Paul has been arguing that God’s wisdom, God’s way of acting in the world, makes no sense from the perspective of “human wisdom” (1:18–31). Thus it was that when Paul came proclaiming God’s plan of salvation through the cross of Christ (“the mystery of God”), he did not rely on persuasive arguments or “sublimity of words.” Rather, he simply proclaimed what God had done, relying on God— through the Spirit and power—to persuade that Paul spoke the truth. Ultimately for Paul, the Christian message cannot be demonstrated using human logic; its truth can only be shown and believed through the power of God.

Jesus exhorts his disciples that they are charged not just to follow and learn from him, but to manifest the glory of God through their lives. Salt is only useful when it seasons food. Likewise, discipleship is not just for the good of the individual but for others as well; disciples must therefore make sure that they are faithful followers of Christ. Light provides illumination, and is thus a prominent biblical metaphor for the attractive power of God’s teaching and actions for others (for example, Isaiah 2:2–5; 42:6). Just as salt must be salty or it stops being salt, and light that does not illuminate cannot really be light, so Christians in whom others cannot see the glory of God are not really (good) disciples.

Jan 08 2025

Faith—Assurance That God Is at Work

Have you ever met someone who is really old and really wise? I have met several such men and women, mostly at daily Mass. Their eyes are gentle. Smile lines are etched into the wrinkles of their faces. In some, a lifetime of generosity is written into their bodies, as though their hands reach out to hug you, even when they have not moved. Others are quieter, but their faces radiate peace. Kindness and holiness have become a way of life for them.

Simeon and Anna are the first-century equivalent of those saints whom you and I have met. These two pray. They pray a lot. Simeon is described as “upright and devout.” When he sees the child, he believes. He believes! An eight-day-old baby is being presented to the Lord. And Simeon sees in that child the Savior of the world. How does that work? Something must have moved within him.

Faith is an inner assurance that rises within us to convince us that God is at work. That belief, at that moment, is a gift. Anna has prayed night and day in the temple for years and years and years. Many of us have tasted the seasoning of the Spirit. But there are saints who have tasted of the pure Spirit, as though it were something they drank straight. Anna seems to be one of those people, those who live on the borderline between God and the world.

You might just be one of those people. If you are, thank you for your life of holiness. If you are not, then like me, let’s keep working to drink deeply of God’s Spirit, day after day. God is real, at work at all times. Faith is a gift, an inner assurance that this is so.

Consider/Discuss

Think about those moments when you have been gifted with an inner certainty about God’s movement or action in your life. It could be a delicate touch or an overwhelming conversion experience. Share that story with someone this week.
Sometimes we start to think and act as though the living God were just an idea. If God is real, at work at all times, what does that mean for how we listen, how we are attentive? What does that divine presence mean for how we live our lives day after day?

Living and Praying with the Word

On this day of presentation, God of glory, we present ourselves to you. Purify us to become more holy. We see in others what beauty a lifetime of grace can create. We want to be like that. Lead us in your everlasting way.