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From: Genesis 18:1-15

The Apparition of God at Mamre

[1] And the Lord appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre, as he
sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. [2] He lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them,
he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,
[3]and said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by
your servant. [4] Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and
rest yourselves under the tree, [5] while I fetch a morsel of bread, that
you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you
have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” [6] And
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly
three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes. [7] And Abraham
ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good and gave it to the servant,
who hastened to prepare it. [8] Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf
which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under
the tree while they ate.

Isaac’s Birth is Promised

[9] They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in
the tent.” [10a] The Lord said, “I will surely return to you in the spring,
and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent
door behind him.

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Commentary:

18:1-19:38. These two episodes—God’s appearance to Abraham at Mamre and
the
destruction of Sodom—form a single account. Once again we can see the sort
of relationship that obtains between God and Abraham; this time, what is
emphasized is not just the promise of a son for Sarah, but also the
patriarch’s intercession on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. This intercession
saves Lot and his family (cf. 19:29). Thus, Abraham is already a blessing
for all the descendants of Lot. This narrative is quite colorful, and
includes some curious little details—making it one of the most popular
passages in the story of the patriarchs.

18:1-15. This new appearance of God to Abraham is somewhat mysterious:
the three men stand for God. When Abraham speaks to them, sometimes he
addresses them in the singular (as if there were one person there: cf. v. 3), and
sometimes in the plural (as if there were three: cf. v. 4). That is why some
Fathers interpreted this appearance as an early announcement of the mystery
of the Holy Trinity; others, following Jewish tradition (cf. Heb 13:2) take
these personages to be angels. The sacred text says that one of the three
men (Yahweh, apparently) stays with Abraham (cf. v. 22), while the other
two, who are referred to as angels, go to Sodom (cf. 19:1). Although the
early chapters of Genesis do not expressly talk about the creation of
angels, that creation can be read into the word “heavens” in Gen 1:1: “at
the beginning of time, God created out of nothing both types of creatures,
spiritual and corporeal, that is, angelic and earthly,” says Lateran Council
IV (”De Fide Catolica”). In Holy Scripture angels are mentioned as being
servants and messengers of God, and, despite the way they are sometimes
described, such as in this passage, they should be understood as being
purely spiritual, personal and immortal creatures, endowed with intelligence
and will. “Angels have been present since creation (cf. Job 38:7, where the
angels are called ‘sons of God’) and throughout the history of salvation,
announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment
of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise (cf. Gen 3:24);
protected Lot (cf. Gen 19); saved Hagar and her child (cf. Gen 21:17);
stayed Abraham’s hand (cf. Gen 22.11); communicated the law by their
ministry (cf. Acts 7:53); led the people of God (cf. Ex 23:20-23); announced
births (cf. Judg 13) and callings (cf. Judg 6:11-24; Is 6:6); and assisted
the prophets (cf. 1 Kings 19:5), just to cite a few examples. Finally, the
angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus
himself (cf. Lk 1:11-26)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 332).

In the general context of Genesis, this episode points up the new situation
created by the Covenant. God speaks to Abraham directly, as he spoke to
Adam before he committed sin. Abraham, for his part, receives God through
his hospitality, and God again promises that Sarah will have a son (now
specifying when the child will be born). “Because Abraham believed in God
and walked in his presence and in covenant with him (cf. Gen 15:6; 17:1-2),
the patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent.
Abraham’s remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of
the true Son of the promise (cf. Gen 18:1-15; Lk 1:26-38). After that, once
God has confided his plan, Abraham’s heart is attuned to his Lord’s
compassion for men and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence
(cf. Gen 18:16-33)” (ibid., 2571).

18:6. The measure mentioned here, a “seah” (pl. “seim”) is a measure of dry
grain (cf. 1 Sam 25:18; 2 Kings 7:1, 16, 18) which was probably a third of
an ephah, that is, about seven liters or two gallons.

18:10. “In the spring”; this could also be translated as “next year”.
Literally, “the time of life”, which some interpret as “the time of a
woman’s pregnancy”, that is, nine months.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Colossians 1:24-28

St. Paul’s Response to His Calling

[24] Now I (Paul) rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my
flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake
of His body, that is, the Church, [25] of which I became a minister
according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make
the word of God fully known, [26] the mystery hidden for ages and
generations but now made manifest to His saints. [27] To them God
chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the
glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
[28] Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ.

St. Paul’s Concern for the Faithful

[1] For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those
at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face, [2] that their
hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all
the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery,
of Christ, [3] in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.

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Commentary:

24. Jesus Christ our Lord perfectly accomplished the work the Father
gave Him to do (cf. John 17:4); as He said Himself when He was about to
die, “It is finished”, it is accomplished (John 19:30).

From the point onwards objective redemption is an accomplished fact.
All men have been saved by the redemptive death of Christ. However,
St. Paul says that he completes in his flesh “what is lacking in
Christ’s afflictions”; what does he mean by this? The most common
explanation of this statement is summarized by St. Alphonsus as
follows: “Can it be that Christ’s passion alone was insufficient to
save us? It left nothing more to be done, it was entirely sufficient
to save all men. However, for the merits of the Passion to be applied
to us, according to St. Thomas (”Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 49, a. 3),
we need to cooperate (subjective redemption) by patiently bearing the
trials God sends us, so as to become like our Head, Christ” (St.
Alphonsus, “Thoughts on the Passion”, 10).

St. Paul is applying this truth to himself. Jesus Christ worked and
strove in all kinds of ways to communicate His message of salvation,
and then He accomplished the redemption by dying on the Cross. The
Apostle is mindful of the Master’s teaching and so he follows in His
footsteps (cf. 1 Peter 2:21), takes up his cross (cf. Matthew 10:38)
and continues the task of bringing Christ’s teaching to all men.

Faith in the fact that we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ,
[Pope] John Paul II says, gives a person “the certainty that in the
spiritual dimension of the work of Redemption he is serving, like
Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters. Therefore
he is carrying out an irreplaceable service. In the Body of Christ, which is
ceaselessly born of the Cross of the Redeemer, it is precisely suffering
permeated by the spirit of Christ’s sacrifice that is the irreplaceable mediator
and author of the good things which are indispensable for the world’s salvation.
It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace
which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes
present in the history of humanity the force of the Redemption” (”Salvifici
Doloris”, 27).

26-27. The “mystery”, now revealed, is God’s eternal plan to give
salvation to men, both Jews and Gentiles, making all without
distinction co-heirs of glory and members of a single body which is the
Church (cf. Ephesians 3:6), through faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Romans
16:25-26).

In Christ, who has brought salvation to Gentile and Jew, the “mystery”
is fully revealed. His presence in Christians of Gentile origin is in
fact a very clear manifestation of the supernatural fruitfulness of the
“mystery” and an additional ground for Christians’ hope. Thanks to
this presence people who do not form part of Israel are enable to
attain salvation. Previously subject to the power of darkness and
slaves of sin (verses 13-14), they have now died to sin through Baptism
(cf. Romans 6:2-3) and Christ, through grace, dwells in their hearts
(on the salvific “mystery”, cf. notes on Ephesians 1:13-14 and
Ephesians 1:9, and “Introduction to the Letters of St. Paul” in “The
Navarre Bible: Romans and Galatians”, pages 32-33).

In His infinite love Christ lives in us through faith and grace,
through prayer and the Sacraments. Also, “He is present when the
Church prays and sings, for He has promised `where two or three are
gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matthew 18:20)”
(Vatican II, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, 7).

“Christ stays in His Church, its Sacraments, its liturgy, its
preaching—in all that it does. In a special way Christ stays with us
in the daily offering of the Blessed Eucharist [...]. The presence of
Christ in the host is the guarantee, the source and the culmination of
His presence in the world.

“Christ is alive in Christians”. Our faith teaches that man, in the
state of grace, is divinized—filled with God. We are men and women,
not angels. We are flesh and blood, people with sentiments and
passions, with sorrows and joys. And this divinization affects
everything human; it is a sort of foretaste of the final resurrection”
([St] J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 102-103).

28: “In all wisdom”: St. Paul is exhorting and teaching each and every
one, communicating wisdom, the true teaching of Jesus Christ. The text
clearly shows St. Paul’s conviction that he is a faithful transmitter of
teachings revealed by God. Possessed of such wisdom he is confident
that he can lead his disciples to Christian perfection.

2-3. The term “mystery”, which St. Paul uses on other occasions (cf.
1:26; Ephesians 1:9), refers in this verse expressly to Christ: Christ
is the complete manifestation of the divine plan or “mystery” designed
to bring about the salvation of mankind. The name Jesus means Savior
and indicates His principal mission—to save the people of Israel (and
them all mankind) from their sins (cf. Matthew 1:21).

The assertion that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge” is based on the fact that Christ—God made man—is the
incarnation of divine Wisdom itself, for Wisdom is one of the names
applied in Sacred Scripture to the second Person of the Blessed
Trinity. Hence St. Athanasius’ comment that “God no longer chose to
make Himself know, as in times past, by the reflection and shadow of
wisdom to be seen in created things: He determined that Wisdom itself,
in person, should become incarnate, should be made man and suffer
death on the cross, so that from then on all the faithful might attain
salvation through faith grounded on the cross” (”Oratio II Contra
Arianos”).

The infinite riches of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ means that
meditation on his life and his teachings is an inexhaustible source of
nourishment for the life of the soul. “There are great depths to be
fathomed in Christ. For He is like an abandoned mine with many
recesses containing treasures, of which, for all that men try to fathom
them, the end and bottom is never reached; rather in each recess men
continue to find new veins of new riches on all sides” (St. John of the
Cross, “Spiritual Canticle”, 37, 3).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.