Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

Dec 17 2024

Scripture Study for

The reading from Genesis follows a classic story form well known in the ancient Near East: heavenly beings come in disguise to a humble home, are shown hospitality, and announce a future birth.

Abraham is portrayed here as the perfect host. One of the visitors foretells the birth of Sarah’s son. Sarah’s significance is clear. She is named rather than merely identified as Abraham’s wife. The child is identified as her son rather than Abraham’s. Obviously, this woman will play an important role in the life of this child. All of this points to the extraordinary nature of the yet unborn child.

Paul rejoices in his sufferings, for he believes that they will benefit the Colossian Christians. He would never say that the sufferings of Jesus were in any way lacking in their atoning efficacy. Rather, he believed that, joined to Jesus, his own sufferings had merit and could be seen as part of the sufferings that would inaugurate the messianic age. Ultimately, the real message that Paul proclaims is Christ the risen Lord. To borrow from the great Jewish rabbi Hillel, everything else is commentary! However, commentary is necessary for us to understand the specific impact of the message in every time and place.

Martha welcomes Jesus into her house. She is not merely overwhelmed with the traditional household duties; she is fulfilling the customary responsibilities of hospitality. The word “service” has specific ministerial connotations. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, the customary place of a disciple. In their own ways, both sisters are faithful disciples of Jesus, one listening to his word and the other performing service. Jesus is not being asked to intervene in a domestic squabble. He is being asked to set priorities. Last Sunday we saw that attention to the person in need is to be preferred over the fulfillment of one’s everyday responsibilities. The story of Martha and Mary seems to be another example of this principle.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Moses instructs the people about the law’s importance and its accessibility. To those who may say that the law is too difficult to understand or too lofty to observe, Moses replies: No! It is neither mysterious nor remote. Even a cursory examination will show that while it is indeed the word of God, it comes to us through human experience. In other words, the law of God is as close to us as is our own human life. This is a bold claim because it identifies human experience as the place where the word of God is to be found.

The exalted description of Christ in the second reading extols the divine character and activity of Christ rather than his human nature and earthly existence. Paul characterizes Christ as the image of God, firstborn, the beginning, the head of the church. Each image adds a significant dimension to our understanding of Christ. Christ occupies the place of preeminence over the rest of creation, a preeminence that makes creation dependent upon him. Using the metaphor of body, Paul depicts both the union that exists between Christ and the church and the preeminence that is Christ’s as head of that body. Finally, Christ is seen as the agent of reconciliation.

A lawyer challenges Jesus’ knowledge of the law. Jesus shows that he knows and conforms to that law, and then he turns the lawyer’s challenge back on him by asking him to answer his own questions. The lawyer quotes the two passages from scripture that encompass all of one’s responsibilities. Jesus responds with a parable in which he changes the question from “Who is my neighbor?” to “What does it mean to be a neighbor?” The lawyer had asked about required works and is instructed about heartfelt love. The admonition is striking: Go and do likewise! Put aside racial or religious prejudices in order to meet the needs of others! Put aside all other responsibilities in order to love the other!

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Isaiah characterizes Jerusalem as a nursing mother, ready to give of herself, feeding her inhabitants from the fullness of her own body. She carries the people, fondles and comforts them. This same maternal metaphor then characterizes God. The metaphor of water is also employed to describe Jerusalem’s life-giving properties. This is a powerful image, since Israel was bounded on several sides by deserts or barren wilderness. On the day Jerusalem is transformed, the people will rejoice with their hearts and their bones. The power of God will shine forth from the restored city, and the people of God will rejoice.

Paul speaks of the death of Jesus and of his own suffering. Jesus died as a convicted felon, and Paul boasts in the sign of this death. The centrality of the cross has turned the world upside down. Joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul has struck a death blow to the world and its system of values, and that world is now dead to him. Faith in the power of the cross of Jesus, not circumcision, effects membership in the people of God. Thus women and men from every race and ethnic origin are welcome in this community.

Jesus uses two metaphors to represent the mission of his disciples: harvest, and lambs among wolves. Harvest suggests that the seventy-two have only to gather up the fruits of the work of others. Still, the field of ministry is threatening and the missionaries themselves are vulnerable as lambs. They are to trust in God and depend upon the hospitality of those to whom they go. The urgency of the time precludes usual social niceties. Peace! will suffice as an adequate greeting. The people will witness the power of God triumphant over the powers of evil. As important as are the wondrous deeds that they will be able to perform, more wondrous still will be the fact that their names will be inscribed in the heavenly book.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Elijah’s symbolic act of throwing his cloak over Elisha indicates that Elisha has been invested with the power and authority of Elijah. It also suggests that a new generation of prophets is on the horizon. This account describes the conflict that exists between two fundamental responsibilities: fidelity to the call from God and fidelity to one’s primary family obligations. Elisha has been commissioned by God to be a prophet, and it is up to him to decide whether or not he can make the radical break from the past that this commission requires.

Paul states that Christ did not free the Galatians from one form of bondage only to have them submit to another. Habits of mind and heart, addictions of all kinds, retain their hold even after they are renounced. Freedom itself is a frightening thing, but it requires the willing renunciation of whatever might enslave them. Paul also insists that the freedom to which the Galatians have been called is not an invitation to license. Though no longer under the bondage of the law, the Galatians are not free to live lawless lives. They are expected to “love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Leviticus 19:18).

Some people of Samaria remained in Israel during the Exile and intermarried with neighboring foreigners. Because of this, the returning Jews considered them ritually unclean and kept them from helping with rebuilding the temple. The Samaritans then built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim, and they refused hospitality to Jews who traveled through Samaria on the way to worship in Jerusalem. Jesus encountered three prospective followers along the way. The first one enthusiastically offers commitment; the other two wish to postpone joining Jesus until they have put their immediate affairs in order. Jesus emphasizes the demands that discipleship will exact. His followers must be willing to relinquish all. While followers should be enthusiastic in their dedication, they should also be prepared to pay the price of wholehearted commitment.

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.