Reading 1 Neh 2:1-8

In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,
when the wine was in my charge,
I took some and offered it to the king.
As I had never before been sad in his presence,
the king asked me, “Why do you look sad?
If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart.”
Though I was seized with great fear, I answered the king:
“May the king live forever!
How could I not look sad
when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins,
and its gates have been eaten out by fire?”
The king asked me, “What is it, then, that you wish?”
I prayed to the God of heaven and then answered the king:
“If it please the king,
and if your servant is deserving of your favor,
send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves,
to rebuild it.”
Then the king, and the queen seated beside him,
asked me how long my journey would take
and when I would return.
I set a date that was acceptable to him,
and the king agreed that I might go.

I asked the king further: “If it please the king,
let letters be given to me for the governors
of West-of-Euphrates,
that they may afford me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah;
also a letter for Asaph, the keeper of the royal park,
that he may give me wood for timbering the gates
of the temple-citadel and for the city wall
and the house that I shall occupy.”
The king granted my requests,
for the favoring hand of my God was upon me.

Responsorial Psalm PS 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!
Though there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!

Alleluia Phil 3:8-9

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Lk 9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him,
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
And to another he said, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”
Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

From: Nehemiah 2:1-8

Nehemiah is authorized to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem

[1] In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Ar-taxerxes, when wine
was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been
sad in his presence. [2] And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing
you are not sick? This is nothing else but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very
much afraid. [3] I said to the king, “Let the king live for ever! Why should not my
face be said, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lies waste, and
its gates have been destroyed by fire?” [4] Then the king said to me, “For what
do you make request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. [5] And I said to the
king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favour in your sight,
that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may re-
build it.” [6] And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long
will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me;
and I set him a time. [7] And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters
be given to me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may
let me pass through until I come to Judah; [8] and a letter to Asaph, the keeper
of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of
the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house which
I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my
God was upon me.

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Commentary:

2:1-20. Putting his trust entirely in the Lord, Nehemiah used every resource avail-
able to him to help his compatriots. He prayed for four months – from Chislev (1:
1) to Nisan (v. 1) – and then used an opportunity that presented itself to outline
his plans to the king; he managed not only to get Artaxerxes’ authorization to go
to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem, but also to requisition the necessary materials
(vv. 1-9). The king referred to (v. 1) was probably Artaxerxes 1 (465-425 BC);
and the twentieth year of his reign was 445 BC.

When Nehemiah reached the city of his ancestors, he initially met with opposi-
tion from the governor of Samaria, Sanbalat, and from Tobiah, a rich landowner
who was related to priestly families (cf. 6:17-18). However, he did manage to
get influential people in Jerusalem (vv. 16ff) to join in his project. Acting prudent-
ly and yet boldly, he was confident that God would help him in his endeavours
(v. 20).

*********************************************************************************************
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: Luke 9:57-62

The Calling of Three Disciples

[57] As they were going along the road, a man said to Him (Jesus), “I will follow
you wherever You go.” [58] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds
of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” [59] To
another He said, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my fa-
ther.” [60] But He said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for
you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” [61] Another said, “I will follow You,
Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” [62] Jesus said to him,
“No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom
of God.”

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

57-62. Our Lord spells out very clearly what is involved in following Him. Being
a Christian is not an easy or comfortable affair: it calls for self-denial and for put-
ting God before everything else. See the notes on Matthew 8:18-22 and Matthew
8:22.

[The notes on Matthew 8:18-22 states:

18-22. From the very outset of His messianic preaching, Jesus rarely stays in
the same place; He is always on the move. He “has nowhere to lay His head”
(Matthew 8:20). Anyone who desires to be with him has to “follow Him”. This
phrase “following Jesus” has a very precise meaning: it means being His disci-
ple (cf. Matthew 19:28). Sometimes the crowds “follow Him”; but Jesus’ true
disciples are those who “follow Him” in a permanent way, that is, who keep on
following Him: being a “disciple of Jesus” and “following Him” amount to the
same thing. After our Lord’s ascension, “following Him” means being a Chris-
tian (cf Acts 8:26). By the simple and sublime fact of Baptism, every Christian
is called, by a divine vocation, to be a full disciple of our Lord, with all that that
involves.

The evangelist here gives two specific cases of following Jesus. In the case of
the scribe our Lord explains what faith requires of a person who realizes that he
has been called; in the second case—that of the man who has already said “yes”
to Jesus—He reminds him of what His commandment entails. The soldier who
does not leave his position on the battlefront to bury his father, but instead leaves
that to those in the rearguard, is doing his duty. If service to one’s country makes
demands like that on a person, all the more reason for it to happen in the service
of Jesus Christ and His Church.

Following Christ, then, means we should make ourselves totally available to Him;
whatever sacrifice He asks of us we should make: the call to follow Christ means
staying up with Him, not falling behind; we either follow Him or lose Him. In the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus explained what following Him involves
— a teaching which we find summarized in even the most basic catechism of
Christian doctrine: a Christian is a man who believes in Jesus Christ — a faith he
receives at Baptism — and is duty bound to serve Him. Through prayer and friend-
ship with the Lord every Christian should try to discover the demands which this
service involves as far as he personally is concerned.]

[The notes on Matthew 8:22 states:

22. “Leave the dead to bury their own dead”: although this sounds very harsh, it
is a style of speaking which Jesus did sometimes use: here the “dead” clearly
refers to those whose interest is limited to perishable things and who have no
aspirations towards the things that last forever.

“If Jesus forbade him,” St. John Chrysostom comments, “it was not to have us
neglect the honor due to our parents, but to make us realize that nothing is more
important than the things of Heaven and that we ought to cleave to these and not
to put them off even for a little while, though our engagements be ever so indis-
pensable and pressing” (”Hom. on St. Matthew”, 27).]

We see here the case of the man who wanted to follow Christ, but on one condi-
tion—that he be allowed to say goodbye to his family. Our Lord, seeing that he
is rather undecided, gives him an answer which applies to all of us, for we have
all received a calling to follow Him and we have to try not to receive this grace in
vain. “We receive the grace of God in vain, when we receive it at the gate of our
heart, and do not let it enter our heart. We receive it without receiving it, that is,
we receive it without fruit, since there is no advantage in feeling the inspiration
if we do not accept it [...]. It sometimes happens that being inspired to do much
we consent not to the whole inspiration but only to some part of it, as did those
good people in the Gospel, who upon the inspiration which our Lord gave them
to follow Him wished to make reservations, the one to go first and bury his father,
the other to go to take leave of his people” (St. Francis de Sales, “Treatise on
the Love of God”, Book 2, Chapter 11).

Our loyalty and fidelity to the mission God has given us should equip us to deal
with every obstacle we meet: “There is never reason to look back (cf. Luke 9:62).
The Lord is at our side. We have to be faithful and loyal; we have to face up to
our obligations and we will find in Jesus the love and the stimulus we need to
understand other people’s faults and overcome our own” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ
Is Passing By”, 160).

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

Readings at Mass

First reading	Nehemiah 2:1-8 ©

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, the wine being my concern, I took up the wine and offered it to the king. Now I had never been downcast before. So the king said, ‘Why is your face so sad? You are not sick, surely? This must be a sadness of the heart.’ A great fear came over me and I said to the king, ‘May the king live for ever! How could my face be other than sad when the city where the tombs of my ancestors are lies in ruins, and its gates have been burnt down?’ ‘What’ the king asked ‘is your request?’ I called on the God of heaven and made this reply to the king, ‘If it pleases the king, and if you are satisfied with your servant, give me leave to go to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ tombs, and rebuild it.’ The king, with the queen sitting there beside him, said, ‘How long will your journey take, and when will you return?’ So I named a date that seemed acceptable to the king and he gave me leave to go. I spoke to the king once more, ‘If it please the king, could letters be given me for the governors of Transeuphrates to allow me to pass through to Judah? And also a letter for Asaph, keeper of the king’s park, to supply me with timber for the gates of the citadel of the Temple, for the city walls and for the house I am to occupy?’ This the king granted me, for the kindly favour of my God was with me.

Psalm	Psalm 136:1-6 ©