Replies

From: Exodus 14:21-15:1

Crossing the Red Sea

[21] Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove the
sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the
waters were divided. [22] And the people of Israel went into the midst of
the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand
and on their left. [23] The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into
the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
[24] And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud
looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the
Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily; and the
Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for the Lord fights for
them against the Egyptians."

[26] Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that
the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon
their horsemen." [27] So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and
the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the
Egyptians fled into it, and the Lord routed the Egyptians in the midst of
the sea. [28] The waters return and covered the chariots and the horsemen
and all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not so
much as one of them remained. [29] But the people of Israel walked on dry
ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand
and on their left.

[30] Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians; and
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. [31] And Israel saw the
great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people feared
the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Song of Victory

[1] Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song the Lord, saying, "I
will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his
rider he has thrown into the sea."

Commentary:

14:19-22. At the wonderful moment of the crossing of the sea, God, man and
the forces of nature play the leading role. In the person of the angel of
the Lord, God the person of the angel of the Lord, becomes more visible; he
directs operations; he plays a direct part. Moses' part consists in doing as
the Lord commands; he is his vicar. The sons of Israel have no active part;
they benefit from what happens. Even the forces of nature come into play:
the pillar of cloud which marked the route by day now blocks the Egyptians'
way; night, the symbol of evil become, as in the Passover, the time God's
visitation; the warm west wind, always feared for its harmful effects, now
proves a great help; and the waters of the sea, so often the symbol of the
abyss and of evil, allow the victorious passage of the sons of Israel.

The prophets see this event as an instance of the creative power of God (cf.
Is 43:1-3), and Christian writers comment along the same lines. Thus, Origen
will say: "See the goodness of God the Creator: if you submit to his will
and follow his Law, he will see to it that created things cooperate with
you, against their own nature if necessary" ("Homiliae In Exodum", 5,5).

The book of Wisdom turns the account of the crossing of the sea into a hymn
of praise to the Lord who delivered Israel (cf. Wis 19:6-9), and St Paul
sees the waters as a figure of baptismal water:
"All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor 10:2).

14:31. The main effect the miraculous crossing of the sea had on the
Israelites was the faith it gave them in the power of God and in the
authority of Moses. This section of the account of the escape from Egypt
ends as it began--that is, showing that the people's faith (4:31) is now
strengthened. So, too, Christian faith is strengthened when we do what God
desires.: "Following Jesus on his way. You have understood what our Lord was
asking from you and you have decided to accompany him on his way. You trying
to walk in his footsteps, to clothe yourself in Christ's clothing, to be
Christ himself: well, your faith, your faith in the light our Lord is giving
you, must both operative and full of sacrifice" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends
of God", 198).

15:1-21. This victory anthem, along with that of Deborah (Judg 5), is one
the oldest hymns of Israel. It probably goes as far back as the 13th century
BC, long before the redactor of this be decided to include it as a colophon
to Exodus account. It is called the "Song of Miriam" (v. 21) because, as we
know from Ugarit poems of the period (13th-9th centuries BC) it was the
practice to put at the end (not the start) the reason why the poem was
written, the author's name and the poem's title (vv. 18-21). It is very
likely that this canticle was recited in the liturgy and that the entire
people said the response (vv, 1, 21) after each stanza was said or sung by
the choir.

It is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving which the three stages of the
deliverance of Israel are remembered--the prodigies of the Red Sea (vv.
4-10), the triumphal pilgrimage in the desert (vv. 4-16) and the taking
possession of the land of Canaan (vv. 17-18).

In this poetic re-creation of these events the divine attributes are
extolled one by one (might, military power, redemption, etc); they reflect
the theological implications of exodus, wilderness and land: it is God who
has done all these wondrous things; he has done them because he has chosen
the people to be his very own; he himself requires that they respond by
acknowledging him to be God, Lord of all, the only deliverer.

15:1-3. Victory over the Egyptians has revealed the glory arid might of God.
Strength, power, salvation can be taken as meaning the same thing, for the
sacred author does not regard the divine attributes as abstract qualities
but as particular actions: only God could truly save the people.

"The Lord is a man of war": this daring description indicates that this is a
very ancient poem. Some translations, possibly because they thought it might
be misunderstood, toned it down a little: the Samaritan Pentateuch has
"powerful in combat" and the Septuagint "he who breaks through battles". We
in our Spanish version coincide with the RSV and the New Vulgate, retaining
the blunt military imagery, which is very descriptive of the almighty power
of God: "He is the Lord of the Universe [...]. He is master of history,
governing hearts and events in keeping with his will" ("Catechism of the
Catholic Church", 269).

"The Lord is his name": literally, "his name is Yah", using an abbreviation
of Yahweh which may have been customary in more ancient times. It may well
be that there is an echo of this name in the "Alleluia" of the Psalms.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Matthew 12:46-50

The True Kinsmen of Jesus

[46] While He (Jesus) was still speaking to the people, behold, His
mother and His brethren stood outside, asking to speak to Him.*
[48] But He replied to the man who told Him, "Who is My mother, and who
are My brethren?" [49] And stretching out His hand toward His
disciples, He said, "Here are My mother and My brethren! [50] For
whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother, and sister
and mother."

(*Other ancient authorities insert verse 47, "Some one told Him, `Your
mother and Your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak to
You.'")

Commentary:

46-47. "Brethren": ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and other languages had no
special words for different degrees of relationship, such as are found
in more modern languages. In general, all those belonging to the same
family, clan and even tribe were "brethren".

In the particular case we have here, we should bear in mind that Jesus
had different kinds of relatives, in two groups--some on His mother's
side, others on St. Joseph's. Matthew 13:55-56 mentions, as living in
Nazareth, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas ("His brethren") and elsewhere
there is reference to Jesus' "sisters" (cf. Matthew 6:3). But in
Matthew 27:56 we are told that James and Joseph were sons of a Mary
distinct from the Blessed Virgin, and that Simon and Judas were not
brothers of James and Joseph, but seemingly children of a brother of
St. Joseph.

Jesus, on the other hand, was known to everyone as "the son of Mary"
(Mark 6:3) or "the carpenter's son" (Matthew 13:55).

The Church has always maintained as absolutely certain that Jesus had
no brothers or sisters in the full meaning of the term: it is a dogma
that Mary was ever-Virgin (cf. note on Matthew 1:25).

48-50. Jesus obviously loved His Mother and St. Joseph. He uses this
episode to teach us that in His Kingdom human ties do not take
precedence. In Luke 8:19 the same teaching is to be found. Jesus
regards the person who does the will of His Heavenly Father as a member
of His own family. Therefore, even though it means going against
natural family feelings, a person should do just that when needs be in
order to perform the mission the Father has entrusted to him (cf. Luke
2:49).

We can say that Jesus loved Mary more because of the bonds between them
created by grace than because He was her son by natural generation:
Mary's divine motherhood is the source of all our Lady's other
prerogatives; but this very motherhood is, in its turn, the first and
greatest of the graces with which Mary was endowed.