Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

The early chapters of Genesis display the repercussions of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, passed on as an inclination to sin. In the call of Abram we see the beginning of a long-term divine plan to deal with the problem of the human heart. In the promise that initiates the relationship that will eventually lead to the creation of God’s covenant partner, Israel, God assures Abram not only of descendants and land, but also that “all the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” It is through Israel that God will bring all humanity back into that harmonious relationship with God they originally enjoyed in the Garden.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds the young man that he has received a gift from God that must be “stirred into flame” (2 Timothy 1:6). Timothy has received a commission to teach the Christian message in its integrity. This task will bring hardship, yet Timothy is to take heart and be strong; like all Christians, he has been saved and called by Christ to a holy life. This is not the result of anything Timothy has done, but is purely through the design and call of God. The “life and immortality” that Christ brings is a pure gift, but it calls for a response: a holy life that manifests the “light” of the gospel that Timothy is called to proclaim.

On a mountain called Sinai (or Horeb), God appeared to Moses, the people of Israel met their Deliverer, and Elijah encountered God in silence. It is fitting, then, that the divine sonship of Christ, just confessed by Peter (16:16), should now be confirmed on a mountain. The Transfiguration of Jesus reveals not only his identity and authority as God’s beloved Son, and as the fulfillment of the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah), but also a hint of his post-resurrection glory. Since the truth revealed on the mountain can only be understood and accepted in light of that future event, the disciples are ordered not to speak of it for the time being.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

The Genesis reading relates how an original intimacy between humans and God was damaged by distrust. The serpent’s question to the woman implies that God has placed an unreasonable limitation on the couple. Although Eve does not take the bait, she does note that God said they would die if they ate from the tree. Knowing that they will not physically die, the serpent tells a half-truth, suggesting that God does not have their best interest at heart. But once the couple has eaten of the tree, they do experience death in the form of estrangement from God, the source of life. Exile from the Garden, where God and the tree of life reside, symbolizes this rupture of the divine-human relationship, the devastating consequences of sin.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul articulates the problem to which Christ is the solution—human captivity to sin. He develops this theme by drawing a contrast between the actions of Adam and their consequences and those of Christ. Adam’s disobedience brought judgment and death, not only for himself but for all his descendants, such that “death reigned” in the world. Christ’s obedience reversed all of this: sinners are made righteous, the condemned are “acquitted,” and the reign of death comes to an end. Through the “abundance of grace,” a sheer gift of God, the acquitted now “reign in life” through Christ.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus, who represents all of Israel (2:15), recapitulates and perfects Israel’s history with God. Now Jesus is led into the wilderness and tested, as Israel was after the Exodus. Whereas in the desert Israel lacked trust and was unfaithful to God, Jesus resists the temptation to use his powers for his own needs, to put God to the test, or to worship anyone other than God. The rest of the Gospel will show Jesus, as Son of God, serving others rather than himself and, even to the Cross, trusting and remaining faithful to the Father.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

Much of Leviticus focuses on God’s formative intentions for Israel by repeating often the phrase, “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” These words punctuate a section of ethical and cultic laws scholars call the Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). The command put forward in the reading this week is exemplary of the ethical commands, and it highlights that these commands are meant to form one’s “heart.” One is not to hate even secretly, or to “cherish” a grudge. Instead, Israelites are called to love one another as much as they love themselves. Thus, they will become as holy as their God.

Paul comes back to an earlier concern, which is the divisions among the Corinthians (1:10–17), the fruit of “the wisdom of this world.” Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) are not leaders of factions, but coworkers and instruments of God’s construction of a temple, the Corinthians as a whole (the “you” here is plural). Divisions form when one considers oneself part of an “in-group” and derives self

worth from that membership (“boasting about human beings”). Paul reminds the Corinthians that their worth comes not from “belonging” to human beings, but to Christ, who himself belongs to God. By virtue of this fact, everything belongs to them. So they can stop trying to gain their worth through posturing and division.

Jesus has been instructing his disciples how the Law is intended to form a certain kind of person. Now he turns to the theme of retaliation. The ancient lex talionis is meant to limit vengeance (Exodus 21:23–24; Leviticus 24:19–20). Jesus deepens this point by commanding his followers to reject vengeance altogether, and further, to respond to demands with generosity. Jesus’ command to love enemies is founded on the observable fact that God also shows kindness to the unjust and the bad (who might be considered God’s “enemies”). Just as Israel was commanded to be holy as God is holy, so Jesus’ followers are commanded to be “perfect” as God is perfect.

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

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.