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To: All

From: Jeremiah 7:1-11

False worship. Discourse concerning the temple


[1] The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] “Stand in the gate of the
LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD,
all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. [3] Thus says
the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I
will let you dwell in this place. [4] Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is
the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

[5] “For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice
one with another, [6] if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow,
or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your
own hurt, [7] then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to
your fathers for ever.

[8] “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. [9] Will you steal, murder,
commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods
that you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house,
which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — only to go on doing
all these abominations? [11] Has this house, which is called by my name, be-
come a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the
LORD.

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Commentary:

7:1-20. Chapter 26 gives more detailed information about the situation covered in
these verses, and what the outcome was. We are told there that Jeremiah made
this speech in the temple “in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah” (26:1), that is, in 608 BC. Shortly before that, Josiah had died in battle (2
Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chron 35:19-24), having done maintenance work on the tem-
ple and having introduced a programme of religious reform based on the centrali-
zation of worship in Jerusalem. Josiah was succeeded by Jehoahaz, whose reign
lasted only three months (cf. Kings 23:31; 2 Chron 36:2), followed by Josiah’s bro-
ther Jehoiakim. That latter reign saw a tolerance of the idolatrous practices that
Josiah had striven to uproot.

The people of Judah felt sure that having the temple in their territory would guar-
antee divine favour and protection for them, and they became surer still after 701,
when the Assyrian troops of Sennacherib turned back from the walls of Jerusalem
without entering the holy city. The high profile that the temple received as a result
of Josiah’s reforms helps to explain the blind confidence felt by the people that
they had nothing to fear if they stayed close to that sanctuary. So, at the time
when Jeremiah was uttering these oracles, even though the temple was there in
all its splendour, religious practice was far from being in line with what the Lord
commanded. Hence the prophet’s insistence on conversion, on true religion,
which manifests itself in fidelity to the Lord, in charity and justice (vv. 5-7). Rites
performed in the temple are of no avail if people don’t listen to the Lord and if they
continue to commit all sorts of sins. Naive confidence in the temple is not enough
(v. 4). To be safe and secure they must obey the Law of God (vv. 8-10). The tem-
ple has no magic power, and it will suffer the same fate as the shrine of Shiloh (v.
14), the famous centre of worship that housed the ark of the Covenant before it
was moved to Jerusalem (Josh 18:1; Judg 21:19) and that was probably des-
troyed by the Philistines. Unless they mend their ways, the people of Jerusalem
will be expelled, just like their brethren in the Northern kingdom, the Ephraimites
(v. 15).

Despite his preaching, Jeremiah finds that they fail to repent. Not only do they
not listen to him: they think that the temple guarantees their safety, yet they
combine that belief with pagan rites in honour of Isthar, the “queen heaven”, the
Assyrian goddess of fertility (vv. 16-18). God will surely punish them (vv. 19-20).

The expression “den of robbers” (v. 11), employed here to describe the temple
when used by people who are very far from being obedient to the Lord, will occur
again when Jesus expresses his pain at all the noise made by traders in the tem-
ple and at people’s disrespect for that holy place (Mt 21:12-13 and par.). Jeremi-
ah is not condemning religious worship in the temple of Jerusalem (nor does Je-
sus); he is saying that they have emptied it of meaning. In any event, after the
coming of Christ, worship of the Lord is no longer confined to rites or external ac-
tions performed in some particular place; people can worship God in their hearts
whenever they happen to be. Therefore St Jerome writes: “Those who say to
themselves constantly, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord’, should listen to what the Apostle says: ‘Do you not know
that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?’ (1 Cor 3:16). Are
you in Jerusalem? Are you in Brittany? It does not matter. The heavenly Pre-
sence lies open before us always, for the kingdom of God is within us “ (Episto-
lae, 2, 58, 2).

*********************************************************************************************
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.


3 posted on 07/27/2012 9:53:59 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All

From: Matthew 13:24-30

The Parable of the Weeds


[24] Another parable he (Jesus) put before them, saying, “The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; [25]
but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat, and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then
the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the householder came and
said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it
weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to
him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No; lest
in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both
grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Ga-
ther the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the
wheat into my barn.’”

The Mustard Seed; The Leaven


[31] Another parable He (Jesus) put before them saying, “The Kingdom of
Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his
field; [32] it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the grea-
test of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.”

[33] He told them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a leaven
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

[34] All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed He said nothing to
them without a parable. [35] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the
foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained


[36] Then He (Jesus) left the crowds and went into the house. And His disci-
ples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
[37] He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; [38] the
field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the Kingdom; the
weeds are the sons of the evil one, [39] and the enemy who sowed them is
the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. [40]
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close
of the age. [41] The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out
of His Kingdom all causes of sin and evildoers, [42] and throw them out into
the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. [43] Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has
ears, let him hear.”

***************************************************************************************
Commentary:

24-25. “The situation is clear: the field is fertile and the seed is good; the
Lord of the field has scattered the seed at the right moment and with great
skill. He even has watchmen to make sure that the field is protected. If, af-
terwards, there are weeds among the wheat, it is because men have failed
to respond, because they—and Christians in particular—have fallen asleep
and allowed the enemy to approach” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
123).

25. This weed—cockle—looks very like wheat and can easily be mistaken for
it until the ears appear. If it gets ground up with wheat it contaminates the
flour and any bread made from that flour causes severe nausea when eaten.
In the East personal vengeance sometimes took the form of sowing cockle
among an enemy’s wheat. Roman law prescribed penalties for this crime.

28. “When the careless servants ask the Lord why weeds have grown in his
field, the explanation is obvious: ‘inimicus homo hoc fecit: an enemy has
done this.’ We Christians should have been on guard to make sure that the
good things placed in this world by the Creator were developed in the service
of truth and good. But we have fallen asleep—a sad thing, that sluggishness
of our heart while the enemy and all those who serve him worked incessant-
ly. You can see how the weeds have grown abundantly everywhere” (St. J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 123).

29-30. The end of this parable gives a symbolic explanation of why God allows
evil to have its way for a time—and for its ultimate extirpation. Evil is to run its
course on earth until the end of time; therefore, we should not be scandalized
by the presence of evil in the world. It will be obliterated not in this life, but af-
ter death; at the Judgment (the harvest) the good will go to Heaven and the
bad to Hell.

31-32. Here, the man is Jesus Christ and the field, the world. The grain of
mustard seed is the preaching of the Gospel and the Church, which from ve-
ry small beginnings will spread throughout the world.

The parable clearly refers to the universal scope and spread of the Kingdom
of God: the Church, which embraces all mankind of every kind and condition,
in every latitude and in all ages, is forever developing in spite of obstacles,
thanks to God’s promise and aid.

33. This comparison is taken from everyday experience: just as leaven gra-
dually ferments all the dough, so the Church spreads to convert all nations.

The leaven is also a symbol of the individual Christian. Living in the middle
of the world and retaining his Christian quality, he wins souls for Christ by
his word and example: “Our calling to be children of God, in the midst of the
world, requires us not only to seek our own personal holiness, but also to go
out onto all the ways of the earth, to convert them into roadways that will car-
ry souls over all obstacles and lead them to the Lord. As we take part in all
temporal activities as ordinary citizens, we are to become leaven acting on
the mass” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 120).

34-35. Revelation, God’s plans, are hidden (cf. Matthew 11:25) from those
who are disposed to accept them. The Evangelist wishes to emphasize the
need for simplicity and for docility to the Gospel. By recalling Psalm 78:2,
he tells us once more, under divine inspiration, that the Old Testament pro-
phecies find their fulfillment in our Lord’s preaching.

36-43. While making its way on earth, the Church is composed of good and
bad people, just men and sinners: they are mixed in with one another until
the harvest time, the end of the world, when the Son of Man, in His capacity
as Judge of the living and the dead, will divide the good from the bad at the
Last Judgment—the former going to eternal glory, the inheritance of the
saints; the latter, to the eternal fire of Hell. Although the just and the sinners
are now side by side, the Church has the right and the duty to exclude those
who cause scandal, especially those who attack its doctrine and unity; this
it can do through ecclesiastical excommunication and other canonical penal-
ties. However, excommunication has a medicinal and pastoral function—to
correct those who are obstinate in error, and to protect others from them.

*****************************************************************************************
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.


4 posted on 07/27/2012 9:55:48 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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