Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel’s primary ethical obligation was social responsibility. Righteousness, which describes the quality of the relationship with God, is really a divine characteristic. Human beings only appropriate it when they are in right relationship with God. In response to the people’s fidelity, they are encouraged to proceed to God’s holy mountain. Even faithful foreigners will be allowed to rejoice here as members of the praying community. The temple is now designated as a house of prayer for all people, not merely a national shrine reserved for the elect. Now God is accessible to all, not merely to those of the bloodline of Israel.

Lest Gentile Christians think that their acceptance of Christ has made them superior to Jews, Paul emphasizes Israelite privilege. They were God’s special people, and it was to them that God granted extraordinary gifts. Paul argues that if he turned to the Gentiles because some Jews would not listen to him, now Jews will be jealous because Gentiles have accepted his message and will be converted. If the Jews’ rejection of the gospel brought reconciliation with God to the rest of the world, how much more will their acceptance of the gospel affect them? Gentiles have no reason to feel superior, for they too were sinners, and God granted them divine mercy.

The story of the Canaanite woman addresses several important and interrelated issues: crossing territorial and cultural boundaries, public social exchange of women and men, the Christian mission to the Gentiles, and the issue of faith. First, despite the belief that to cross into pagan territory was to leave God’s holy land, Jesus deliberately crosses into Gentile territory. In addition, the woman was unattended, a fact that threatened Jesus’ respectability. However, Jesus disregards the factors of gender, ethnic/religious background, and questionable lifestyle in order to reconcile to God a person who was marginalized by society.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

Elijah has retreated into a cave, but God calls him from this place of shelter and darkness to stand before the Lord out in the open. There he witnesses the wind, the earthquake, and the fire associated with God’s appearance, but he does not experience God within these natural marvels. It is only when he hears a “tiny whispering sound” that he is gripped with the realization that God is present. He covers his face in an act of reverence. Most commentators maintain that this tiny whisper points to the importance of the small and seemingly insignificant in life as the stage upon which the revelation of God is enacted.

Paul speaks about his ardent attachment to his Jewish compatriots, his kindred according to the flesh. Although he has turned from proclaiming the gospel to the Jewish people and devoted himself to the conversion of the Gentiles, he never ceases loving the people from whom he came. It is this very love that causes him such anguish, because his own people have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah whom God first promised and then sent to them. Paul lists several prerogatives that they enjoy as the chosen people of God. However, their great est boast is that the anointed one of God came from them.

In the pre-dawn dimness, the apostles saw Jesus walking toward them on the water. To portray Jesus walking on the chaotic water was to cast him in the guise of this creator-god who alone governs chaotic waters. Peter accepted Jesus’ invitation to walk on the water to him. Peter is a model of both faith and lack of faith. He believed that he would be able to walk on the water, and he did; he doubted that he would be able to long endure the chaotic waters, and he did not. Ultimately, it was faith that won out, for Peter cried out to Jesus, knowing that Jesus had the power to save him, and he did.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

God is cast in the role of a street vendor, who offers food and drink at no cost both to those who are able to pay and to those who are not. All are invited to come to the Lord in order to be nourished. What God has to offer is satisfying and will be long-lasting, compared with all else for which people seem to spend their money. The real object of the invitation is God’s announcement of the reestablishment of a covenant bond. This prophecy suggests that the covenant had been violated, and now God is eager to restore the severed bond. Paul insists that nothing that can separate believers from the love of Christ. He is probably challenging the long-standing notion that a person’s misfortune is the consequence of some misdeed. Paul turns this understanding upside down by insisting that the opposite can be true—that the righteous, precisely because they are righteous, enter into the sufferings of Christ. In other words, misfortune does not separate them from Christ; it can actually unite them with him. Paul makes four significant points: 1) God’s love for us is basic to everything, 2) this love comes to us through Jesus, 3) Jesus is God’s “anointed one,” and 4) Jesus is the Lord to whom we give our allegiance.

The death of John the Baptist prompted Jesus to seek a place where he might be by himself. However, his departure did not deter the crowds, who seemed to know where he was going and arrived there before he did. Jesus’ actions over the food were brief but significant. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it as food. The eucharistic overtones are obvious. The role played here by the apostles cannot be overlooked. They were the ones through whom the crowds experienced the munificence of Jesus. The author of the Gospel shows by this that Jesus provides for his people through the agency of the church.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

Solomon asks for an understanding heart so that he can rule his people wisely. This request shows his concern for God’s people, not merely for himself. It is no wonder that God is pleased with him. The very last verse of the passage reinforces the tradition of Solomon’s wisdom, claiming that no one before him or anyone after him could compare with him. The wisdom referred to here is not experiential wisdom, the kind that stems from reflection on experience; it is really a gift from God. God chose Solomon to be king, and gave him the wisdom he needed to rule wisely.

Paul’s insistence that all things work for good should not be misunderstood as meaning that everything will work out in the end. Rather, it implies a profound trust that God can bring good even out of misfortune. Paul’s teaching on predestination has often been misunderstood. He states that God foreknew from the beginning of time and with divine power predetermined who would be called, justified, and glorified. And who are the ones called? Nowhere does Paul suggest that some are predestined to salvation and others to perdition. Rather, the entire Christian tradition provides the answer to the question. All are called to be justified and glorified.

The parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price both suggest that the kingdom of God is present though unperceived. However, only the very shrewd discover it and sacrifice everything in order to possess it. The parable of the net is quite different. Like the parable of the wheat and the weeds (see Matthew 13:40b–42, Sixteenth Sunday), it describes a community consisting of both good and bad. Only at the end of the catch will the fish be separated. Jesus asks if the disciples understand his teaching, because they must see that, like the old and new treasures of the householder, the teaching of Jesus, though radically different, is grounded in the original tradition.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

The author of Wisdom lists forceful divine characteristics. Beginning with the total and exclusive providence of God, he states that only the God of Israel exercises care over all. Because God has neither peer nor rival, God is accountable to no one for the way justice is practiced. God’s might is tempered by leniency. The righteous trust in God’s power at work in the world. However, those who do not trust this power are fearful. The people of Israel are exhorted to pattern their treatment of others after God’s treatment of them, to temper their own might with leniency, to regulate their own justice with kindness.

Paul provides us with a bold and moving explanation of prayer. He describes human limitation and how the Spirit comes to the assistance of human beings precisely in this limitation. He maintains that we do not know how to pray as we ought. Still, such weakness need not prevent us from accomplishing great things through the Spirit who works in and through us. This Spirit acts as intermediary between God and us. Since God searches hearts, God knows that it is the Spirit who makes intercession for us. God has a purpose, and though we do not know what that purpose is, the enabling Spirit of God moves us toward it.

Three parables illustrate aspects of the growth of the reign of God: the field sown with weeds, the mustard seed, and the yeast in the dough. In the first parable, good seed is sown, but weeds grow up along with the crops. This represents a community that includes both good and bad. Purging should be delayed. The time of harvest will come when separation will take place. The second and third parables address the reign’s unimpressive beginnings, its gradual and imperceptible growth, and the extraordinary yield that it will ultimately produce. Jesus’ teaching ends with a solemn admonishment: Whoever has ears ought to hear and understand this.