From: Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
The Law is read out. The Feast of Tabernacles
[9] And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and
the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the
Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard
the words of the law. [10] Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and
drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this
day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.” [11] So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this
day is holy, do not be grieved.” [12] And all the people went their way to eat and
drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had under-
stood the words that were declared to them.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
8:1-18 The text of this chapter forms part of the “memoirs of Ezra” which the
sacred writer has moved and positioned here in the account of the rebuilding of
the city. By doing so, he highlights the importance of the Law in the new stage
of the history of the chosen people (as the writer sees it, this stage begins with
the reconstruction of their national and religious life spearheaded by Ezra the
priest and Nehemiah the layman). We do not know the exact year when the e-
vents dealt with here occurred, nor the exact content of the Law proclaimed on
this occasion. It is possible that a substantial part of the present Pentateuch
was read out.
The reading and explanation of the Law did not take place inside the temple; the
people gathered around the stage specially set up in front of that building. From
the time of Solomon up to the fall of Jerusalem, religious activity centered on the
temple liturgy. From the exile onwards it was built around the Law by means of
the institution of the synagogue. Because they could not go up to the House of
the Lord, exiles used to meet in private houses or in the open air to listen to the
reading of legal and prophetical texts. The formal meeting described here, held
in a square beside the city wall, shows that in this new stage, with Ezra to the
fore, the Law of the Lord was coming to occupy pride of place in the religious life
of the people, and that it was already more important than the offering of victims
for the purpose of sacrifice.
When they hear the commandments of the Law read out, the people weep be-
cause they have not been keeping some of them and they are afraid that God
will punish them on that account. But Ezra and the Levites make them see that
what they have to do is to start again, on that day, for it is a “holy” day. It was
the festival day of the new civil year (cf. Lev 23:24-25; Num 29:1-6).
The proclamation of the Law seems to be linked to the celebration of the feast
of Booths (or Tents, or Tabernacles). That celebration was already (briefly) men-
tioned in Ezra 3:4-6, but there is a new element here (which must be due to Ez-
ra’s interpretation) – the fact that the booths are made with branches cut in the
hills (cf. Lev 23:39-43). No mention is made of the day of Atonement which was
celebrated on the tenth day of the same month (cf. Lev 23:26-32). During the se-
ven days of the feast of booths Ezra keeps reading out the Law as Deuteronomy
31:9-13 lays down must be done when the year is a sabbatical one. In these ac-
tions of Ezra and the Levites, the teachers of the Laws, we can see the origin of
what will become the “Great Assembly”, the official body which will, in the cen-
turies to come, interpret the Law and identify which books form part of the ca-
non. The reading of the books of the Law will from now on become the most im-
portant way of meeting God and listening to his word.
*********************************************************************************************
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 10:1-12
The Mission of the Seventy Disciples
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
1-12. Those who followed our Lord and received a calling from Him (cf. Luke 9:57-
62) included many other disciples in addition to the Twelve (cf. Mark 2:15). We do
not know who most of them were; but undoubtedly some of them were with Him
all along, from when Jesus was baptized by John up to the time of His ascension
—for example, Joseph called Barrabas, and Matthias (cf. Acts 1:21-26). We can
also include Cleopas and his companion, whom the risen Christ appeared to on
the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35).
From among these disciples, our Lord chooses seventy-two for a special assign-
ment. Of them, as of the Apostles (cf. Luke 9:1-5), He demands total detachment
and complete abandonment to divine providence.
>From Baptism onwards every Christian is called by Christ to perform a mission.
Therefore, the Church, in our Lord’s name, “makes to all the laity an earnest ap-
peal in the Lord to give a willing, noble and enthusiastic response to the voice of
Christ, who at this hour is summoning them more pressingly, and to the urging
of the Holy Spirit. The younger generation should feel this call to be addressed
in a special way to themselves; they should welcome it eagerly and generously.
It is the Lord Himself, by this Council, who is once more inviting all the laity to
unite themselves to Him ever more intimately, to consider His interests as their
own (cf. Philippians 2:5), and to join in His mission as Savior. It is the Lord who
is again sending them into every town and every place where He Himself is to
come (cf. Luke 10:1). He sends them on the Church’s apostolate, an apostolate
that is one yet has different forms and methods, an apostolate that must all the
time be adapting itself to the needs of the moment; He sends them on an apos-
tolate where they are to show themselves His cooperators, doing their full share
continually in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor cannot be
lost (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58)” (Vatican II, “Apostolicam Actuositatem”, 33).
3-4. Christ wants to instill apostolic daring into His disciples; this is why He says,
“I send you out”, which leads St. John Chrysostom to comment: “This suffices to
give us encouragement, to give us confidence and to ensure that we are not afraid
of our assailants” (”Hom. on St. Matthew”, 33). The Apostles’ and disciples’ bold-
ness stemmed from their firm conviction that they were on a God-given mission:
they acted, as Peter the Apostle confidently explained to the Sanhedrin, in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, “for there is no other name under heaven by
which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“And the Lord goes on,” St. Gregory the Great adds, “Carry no purse, no bag, no
sandals; and salute no one on the road.’ Such should be the confidence the prea-
cher places in God that even if he is not provided with the necessities of life, he
is convinced that they will come his way. This will ensure that worry about provi-
ding temporal things for himself does not distract him from providing others with
eternal things” (”In Evangelia Homiliae”, 17). Apostolate calls for generous self-
surrender which leads to detachment; therefore, Peter, following our Lord’s com-
mandment, when the beggar at the Beautiful Gate asked him for alms (Acts 3:2-
3), said, “I have no silver or gold” (”ibid.”, 3:6), “not so as to glory in his poverty”,
St. Ambrose points out, “but to obey the Lord’s command. It is as if he were sa-
ying, ‘You see in me a disciple of Christ, and you ask me for gold? He gave us
something much more valuable than gold, the power to act in His name. I do not
have what Christ did not give me, but I do have what He did give me: In the name
of Jesus Christ, arise and walk’ (cf. Acts 3:6)” (”Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam,
in loc”.). Apostolate, therefore, demands detachment from material things and it
also requires us to be always available, for there is an urgency about apostolic
work.
“And salute no one on the road”: “How can it be”, St. Ambrose asks himself,
“that the Lord wishes to get rid of a custom so full of kindness? Notice, however,
that He does not just say, ‘Do not salute anyone’, but adds, ‘on the road.’ And
there is a reason for this.
“He also commanded Elisha not to salute anyone he met, when He sent him to
lay his staff on the body of the dead child (2 Kings 4:29): He gave him this order
so as to get him to do this task without delay and effect the raising of the child,
and not waste time by stopping to talk to any passerby he met. Therefore, there
is no question of omitting good manners to greet others; it is a matter of remo-
ving a possible obstacle in the way of service; when God commands, human
considerations should be set aside, at least for the time being. To greet a per-
son is a good thing, but it is better to carry out a divine instruction which could
easily be frustrated by a delay (”ibid.”).
6. Everyone is “a son of peace” who is disposed to accept the teaching of the
Gospel which brings with it God’s peace. Our Lord’s recommendation to His di-
sciples to proclaim peace should be a constant feature of all the apostolic ac-
tion of Christians: “Christian apostolate is not a political program or a cultural
alternative. It implies the spreading of good, ‘infecting’ others with a desire to
love, sowing peace and joy” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 124).
Feeling peace in our soul and in our surroundings is an unmistakable sign that
God is with us, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22): “Get rid of these
scruples that deprive you of peace. What takes away your peace of soul cannot
come from God. When God comes to you, you will feel the truth of those gree-
tings: My peace I give to you..., peace I leave you..., peace be with you..., and
you will feel it even in the midst of troubles” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 258).
7. Our Lord clearly considered poverty and detachment a key feature in an apos-
tle. But He was aware of His disciples’ material needs and therefore stated the
principle that apostolic ministry deserves its recompense. Vatican II reminds us
that we all have an obligation to contribute to the sustenance of those who ge-
nerously devote themselves to the service of the Church: “Completely devoted
as they are to the service of God in the fulfillment of the office entrusted to them,
priests are entitled to receive a just remuneration. For ‘the laborer deserves his
wages’ (Luke 10:7), and ‘the Lord commanded that they who proclaim the Gos-
pel should get their living by the Gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:14). For this reason, in-
sofar as provision is not made from some other source for the just remuneration
of priests, the faithful are bound by a real obligation of seeing to it that the neces-
sary provision for a decent and fitting livelihood for the priests are available” (Va-
tican II, “Presbyterorum Ordinis”, 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.