Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Just prior to this week’s reading, Jeremiah has complained to God that God has “seduced” him—drawn him into a difficult mission of proclaiming God’s word of judgment to a faithless and violent people. In the face of rejection, the prophet has tried to walk away from his calling, but like a fire burning in his heart, the word of God demands to be heard (20:7–9). Yet despite danger and even the treachery of friends, Jeremiah ultimately trusts that God will defend him “like a mighty champion” because he is doing God’s work. In Jeremiah we see both the depths of suffering in relationship with God and the heights of trust and hope despite it all.

Paul explains to the Romans how the death of Christ has saved humanity from death and sin. Paul understands sin here not as a human act of the breaking of covenant commands (“law”), but as a malevolent, intractable power that entered the world through human disobedience. This power, which spread through all Adam’s descendants, brought with it death. Thus all people, even those who were not under the covenant obligations to God, sinned, even if they were not breaking “the law” (Torah). Thus death “reigned” over all. The obedience of Christ ends this reign by flooding humanity with grace, a gift from God to deliver the descendants of Adam from the bondage of sin and its “wages” of death (6:23).

As Jesus sends the Twelve out to proclaim the kingdom, he warns them of opposition. This warning shades into predictions of what the early church will face after Easter. Out of fear for their lives and livelihoods, they will be tempted to withdraw from the task of proclaiming the gospel, or even to deny Christ. Yet this is what they are being formed to do: to proclaim publicly what they are learning from and about Jesus. In the face of fear, they must remember not only that God cares for them, but also that even physical death is to be preferred to the spiritual death that would follow from apostasy or abandoning the call to proclaim the gospel.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel has finally arrived on the threshold of the Promised Land. Through the years, they struggled to trust that the God who delivered them from bondage can take care of them and provide for all their needs. This has been, and will continue to be, an important challenge, since distrust leads to the worship of other gods. Moses thus reminds the people of all God has done for them, providing them with food and water, and not just any food, but manna, a special food created by God for them. Through the trials, God has been teaching them that they can and must rely on God, who provides all they need for the journey.

Paul’s rhetorical questions regarding the blood and body of Christ occur within the context of an admonition to the Corinthians to avoid buying meat known to have been offered to pagan gods. Eating meat from such sacrifices, even if one does not believe that the gods are real, constitutes a “participation” with them. Just as ancient Israel could have no relationship with any gods but the God of the covenant, so Christians may not “participate” with anyone but Christ. They do this in the sharing of the cup of blessing and the breaking of the bread. This common participation creates a single body, whose members are responsible for each other and therefore should show proper concern for each other.

Jesus’ claim to be “the living bread that came down from heaven” occurs within a scene that begins with a question about believing that Jesus has been sent by God. The crowd has asked for a sign (“What can you do?” [6:30]), like the sign of the manna given in the desert. Jesus responds that he himself is the true bread from heaven. Just as the manna nourished the people, Jesus says, so he, who is the true bread from heaven, will nourish those who can accept it. When they eat Jesus’ flesh they will be receiving him, establishing or strengthening a mutual indwelling. Through this mutual “abiding” Jesus shares his own eternal life with the recipient.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Much of the book of Exodus is concerned with answering the question “Who is the Lord?” In the deliverance from Egypt, provision in the wilderness, and establishment of the covenant, God is shown to be faithful, powerful, and wise. The present scene takes place shortly after the affair of the golden calf, which nearly ends the covenant relationship. Thanks to Moses, who reminds the Lord of his fidelity, the covenant has been renewed. It is against this background that the famous phrase must be understood: The God of Israel can be angered by human infidelity, but God’s mercy, grace, kindness, and fidelity far outshine that anger. This is who the Lord is.

Throughout his second letter to them, Paul has been admonishing the Corinthians to forsake the division and lack of fidelity to the gospel way of life that he has seen among them. He warns them to examine themselves to see if they are living in faith: “Test yourselves” (13:5). Despite the severe tone, he ends by exhorting them to rejoice—they have been saved by Christ. In that joy they should recognize their fellowship and act accordingly, with mutual encouragement, agreement, and peace. Then their community will be a sign of God’s love and peace. The letter ends with an invocation of Christ, God (the Father), and the Holy Spirit, one of the clearest “trinitarian” expressions in the New Testament.

In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus has told him that “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (3:5). That is, one must be (re)born from above. This is a gift from God that can only be accepted by believing that Jesus is God’s Son, given by God—both in the sense of the incarnation of the Word and in his death on the cross—so that those who do believe might have eternal life. In John, “eternal life” refers to a “abundant life” (10:10), a quality of life that can be lived on earth and after bodily death, rather than simply a “duration” of life after death.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Pentecost was the Greek name for the summer harvest festival held fifty days after Passover (Deuteronomy 16:9–12). It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals in which “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” were expected to come to Jerusalem. At the sound of a strong driving wind these same Jews rush to the scene to discover Jesus’ disciples speaking in their various languages. Ultimately, the Spirit’s work will not be limited to the “gift of tongues,” but this along with the power to speak of “the mighty acts of God” is the most immediate effect of Pentecost. With the coming of the Spirit, the disciples are equipped to further Jesus’ mission to gather “all nations” to God, beginning with Israel.

Socioeconomic divisions in Corinth have been exacerbated by a tendency to interpret different charisms of the Spirit as status indicators. Paul emphasizes that God has endowed the Corinthians with a variety of gifts—different gifts, different forms of service, different workings—that are meant to enrich the community, not divide it. They have not been given to individuals as much as they have been given to the community as a whole, and for the whole community’s benefit. The fact that the same Spirit is responsible for the variety of gifts means that, ultimately, they are meant to unify the one body of Christ, which the Spirit is building and unifying through those same gifts.

In John’s Gospel the risen Lord bestows the Spirit on his followers not at Pentecost but on the evening of the Resurrection. Compelled by fear to barricade themselves behind doors, they nevertheless suddenly discover that Christ has been able to enter into their midst. Although some of his disciples may have good reason to fear even him, having abandoned him at his darkest hour, Jesus greets them immediately with peace. His wounds are offered not as a reproach, but as evidence that it is he, the wounded Jesus, who greets them with twice peace, a sign of reconciliation. Breathing on them the promised Holy Spirit (14:15–17), Jesus empowers them to offer that same reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

At his ascension, Jesus had ordered the apostles to remain in Jerusalem to await their baptism by the Holy Spirit (1:4–5). Now they return to Jerusalem just across the Kidron Valley from Mount Olivet—no further than a Jew was allowed to walk on the Sabbath. It is characteristic of Acts that Jesus’ followers pray together at important moments, as they do here. The presence of the women, including the mother of Jesus, underscores the important role that women will continue to play in Luke’s account. The list of the eleven apostles (minus Judas Iscariot) sets the stage for his replacement in the following passage (1:15–26).

Peter exhorts his audience to make sure that if they suffer, it is for the right reason. As he has already pointed out several times, Christ himself suffered, and so it is to be expected that his followers will, too. Yet as long as they are being insulted or suffering for the name of Christ, they have cause to rejoice, for his experience of glory will be theirs, too. Not all suffering is cause for rejoicing, of course, but only unjust suffering. Suffering as a result of grievous sin, of course, does not reflect the suffering of Christ, and so does not lead to glory.

In his prayer to the Father at the Last Supper, Jesus states a central theme of John’s Gospel: eternal life consists in knowing the Father and the Son he sent. Jesus has given glory to God by making the Father known on earth. Now he asks the Father to give him the glory he already possesses as the Word who came into the world (1:1–14). As the Prologue states, that world did not receive the Word; Jesus affirms here that only those whom God had given him “out of the world” believed in him. The world here means those aspects of human reality that are opposed to God. This is why Jesus does not pray “for the world,” which is implacably opposed to him, but only for those who have believed in him and whom he now leaves, for the time being, in the midst of that hostile world.