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From: Ezra 1:1-6

The exiles return from Babylon

[1] In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth
of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it
in writing:

[2] Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given me
all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Je-
rusalem, which is in Judah. [3] Whoever is among you of all his people, may his
God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild
the house of the Lord, the God of Israel — he is the God who is in Jerusalem; [4]
and let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of
his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offe-
rings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.”

[5] Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the
priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild
the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem; [6] and all who were about them
aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with
costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.

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Commentary:

1:1-6:22. The second book of Chronicles closed with an account of the fall of the
fall of Jerusalem as a consequence of the city’s repeated unfaithfulness to God
(cf. 2 Chron 36:17-21), and with the news of Cyrus’ calling, in God’s name, for the
rebuilding of the temple and the return of the exiles (cf. 2 Chron 36:22-23). The
book of Ezra starts by covering the same ground (1:1-4) and then goes on to de-
scribe how Cyrus’ decree was implemented. It deals with the preparation for the
return to Jerusalem (1:5-11), and who these repatriates were (2:1-70); how the
first thing they did at Jerusalem was to build an altar and start offering sacrifices
(3:1-6), and about how, when they began to rebuild the temple, they met with op-
position from the people in the land (4:1-5), who petitioned the Persian king, with
the result that the rebuilding had to cease (4:6-24). But, encouraged by the pro-
phets Haggai and Zechariah, those who had returned set about their task again
(5:1-2) and kept at it, in the hope that the ban on building would be lifted (5:3-5).
The authorities then sent a new letter to King Darius (5:6-17), who decreed that
the Jews be allowed to build the temple in peace, as Cyrus had already instruc-
ted (6:1-12). This meant that they were able to finish the building and dedicate
it to the Lord (6:13-18), and then celebrate joyfully their first Passover in their
homeland (6:19-22).

The first part of the book shows how devout and tenacious these repatriates were
— fully committed to the worship of the Lord and the reconstruction of his temple.
But it also reveals the animosity shown towards them by those living in the coun-
try. Only God’s will, expressed in decrees of the Persian kings, made it possible
for this enterprise to succeed. The chosen people were springing up again in the
promised land.

In Christian tradition, in the light of Jesus Christ’s message, these pages are
read as having a spiritual meaning to do with the advancement of the Church:
just as the people of God in the Old Testament, was able to reconstitute itself
after the bitter experience of the exile, and survived despite difficulties of all sorts,
so too the new people of God manages to survive over the course of the centuries
even though it encounters all kinds of obstacles. “If you do not trust words, be-
lieve in deeds. How many tyrants have tried to oppress the Church? How much
boiling oil! How many pyres and sharp teeth and raised swords . . . ! And they
have not triumphed! Where are they now, those who waged ware against her?
And where is the Church? She shines brighter than the sun. The power of her
enemies is spent, but the strength of the Church is endless. Even when there
were very few Christians, the Church was not overcome; now that her faith and
piety have spread throughout the world, do you think you can defeat her? ‘Hea-
ven will pass away but my words shall never fail’; it is clear: God loves the
Church more than heaven itself. He did not take for himself a heavenly body but
an ecclesial one. Heaven exists for the Church, not the Church for the sake of
heaven” (St John Chrysostom, “Sermo antequam iret in exilium”, 2).

1:1-4 Cyrus was king of Persia from 559 to 529 BC. History portrays him as a
ruler tolerant of the traditional customs of his subject peoples and respectful of
their religious practices. When he entered Babylon in triumph in 539 BC, he es-
tablished the cult of Marduk there, and when he heard about the position of the
deportees from Jerusalem he facilitated their return to their country to rebuild
the temple of their God.

But the sacred book, which looks beneath the surface of events, points out that
Cyrus’ decisions in favour of the Jews derived not just from the king’s good dis-
position but from God himself. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus (v. 1) and
the heads of the houses of Judah and Benjamin (1:5) so as to bring about in this
new stage of salvation history the rebuilding of the temple and to re-establish the
people in Jerusalem. God uses a pagan king to achieve his saving purpose for the
chosen people. That is what Isaiah 45:1 means when it calls Cyrus “the Lord’s
anointed”, even though the king does not realize he is forwarding the Lord’s plans:
“though you do not know me” (Is 45:4). Moreover, the “seventy years” of exile pro-
phesied by Jeremiah (cf. 2 Chron 336:21) are shortened by Cyrus’ decree which
causes the return from exile to happen in 538 BC. It all goes to show that God is
above kings and nations and that he is merciful to his people.

Unlike other passages which report Cyrus’ decree (cf. 2 Chron 36:22-23; Ezra 6:
3-12), here we are told that the king acknowledges that “the Lord, the God of hea-
ven” (v. 2) — apparently the title given to the supreme Persian deity Ahura Mazda
— is one and the same as “Lord, the God of Israel who is in Jerusalem” (v. 3).
This is a profession of faith in the one true God, the God who revealed himself to
the Jewish people, but whose power extends over all the nations.

1:5-7. Although the decree of Cyrus was addressed to all those belonging to the
people of God (1:3) living in the Persian empire, already seen as “the remnant”,
the “survivors” of what was ancient Israel (1:4), now only the “heads of the houses
of Judah and Benjamin” are mentioned (v. 5) — these being the two tribes that had
made up the kingdom of the South, the kingdom of Judah. Those deported after
the fall of the Northern kingdom (cf. 2 Kings 17:6) have disappeared from the wri-
ter’s horizon in the same way as the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles put that king-
dom out of his mind. The reconstruction of the people in this new stage of its ex-
istence that begins now is based solely on what had been the kingdom of Judah,
including the priests and Levites who had been attached to the temple of Jerusa-
lem: as this writer sees things, only the men of Judah were the true people of Is-
rael and of these, in a special way, those Jews who gave up their position in Ba-
bylon and embarked on the adventure of returning to Jerusalem.

*********************************************************************************************
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 8:16-18

Parable of the Sower. The Meaning of the Parables (Continuation)

(Jesus told the crowd,) [16] “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel,
or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the
light. [17] For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret
that shall not be known and come to light. [18] Take heed then how you hear; for
to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he
thinks that he has will be taken away.”

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Commentary:

[There is no commentary available for Luke 8:16-18. The commentary for the
same parable found in Mark 4:21-25 states:]

16-17. This parable contains a double teaching. Firstly, it says that Christ’s doc-
trine should not be kept hidden; rather, it must be preached throughout the whole
world. We find the same idea elsewhere in the Gospels: “What you hear whis-
pered, proclaim it upon the housetops” (Mt 10:27); “Go into all the world and
preach the Gospel to the whole of creation...” (Mk 16:15). The other teaching is
that the Kingdom which Christ proclaims has such ability to penetrate all hearts
that, at the end of time, when Jesus comes again, not a single human action, in
favor or against Christ, will not become public or manifest.

24-25. Our Lord never gets tired of asking the Apostles, the seed which will pro-
duce the Church, to listen carefully to the teaching he is giving: they are recei-
ving a treasure for which they will be held to account. “To him who has will more
be given ...”: he who responds to grace will be given more grace and will yield
more and more fruit; but he who does not will become more and more impove-
rished (cf. Mt 25:14-30). Therefore, there is no limit to the development of the
theological virtues: “If you say ‘Enough,’ you are already dead” (St. Augustine,
“Sermon” 51). A soul who wants to make progress in the interior life will pray
along these lines: “Lord, may I have due measure in everything, except in Love”
(St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 427).

[The commentary for another similar parable found in Matthew 13:12 states:]

12. Jesus is addressing his disciples and explaining to them that, precisely be-
cause they have faith in him and want to have a good grasp of his teaching, they
will be given a deeper understanding of divine truths. But those who do not “fol-
low him” (cf. note on Mt 4:18-22) will later lose interest in the things of God and
will grow even blinder: it is as if the little they have is being taken away from
them.

This verse also helps us understand the meaning of the parable of the sower, a
parable which gives us a wonderful explanation of the supernatural economy of
divine grace: God gives grace, and man freely responds to that grace. The result
is that those who respond to grace generously receive additional grace and so
grow steadily in grace and holiness; whereas those who reject God’s gifts be-
come closed up within themselves; through their selfishness and attachment to
sin they eventually lose God’s grace entirely. In this verse, then, our Lord gives
a clear warning: with the full weight of His divine authority He exhorts us — with-
out taking away our freedom — to act responsibly: the gifts God keeps sending
us should yield fruit; we should make good use of the opportunities for Christian
sanctification which are offered us in the course of our lives.

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

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: White.

These are the readings for the feria

First reading	Ezra 1:1-6 ©

Cyrus king of Persia frees the Jews to return to Jerusalem

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, wherever he lives, be helped by the people of that place with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, as well as voluntary offerings for the Temple of God which is in Jerusalem.”’

Then the heads of families of Judah and of Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, in fact all whose spirit had been roused by God, prepared to go and rebuild the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem; and all their neighbours gave them every assistance with silver, gold, goods, cattle, quantities of costly gifts and with voluntary offerings of every kind.

Responsorial Psalm	Psalm 125(126) ©