Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 09-27-2020

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

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Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 21
28.	But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: Son, go work to day in my vineyard.	Quid autem vobis videtur ? Homo quidam habebat duos filios, et accedens ad primum, dixit : Fili, vade hodie, operare in vinea mea.	τι δε υμιν δοκει ανθρωπος ειχεν τεκνα δυο και προσελθων τω πρωτω ειπεν τεκνον υπαγε σημερον εργαζου εν τω αμπελωνι μου
29.	And he answering, said: I will not. But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went.	Ille autem respondens, ait : Nolo. Postea autem, pœnitentia motus, abiit.	ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν ου θελω υστερον δε μεταμεληθεις απηλθεν
30.	And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: I go, Sir; and he went not.	Accedens autem ad alterum, dixit similiter. At ille respondens, ait : Eo, domine, et non ivit :	και προσελθων τω δευτερω ειπεν ωσαυτως ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν εγω κυριε και ουκ απηλθεν
31.	Which of the two did the father's will? They say to him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you.	quis ex duobus fecit voluntatem patris ? Dicunt ei : Primus. Dicit illis Jesus : Amen dico vobis, quia publicani et meretrices præcedent vos in regnum Dei.	τις εκ των δυο εποιησεν το θελημα του πατρος λεγουσιν αυτω ο πρωτος λεγει αυτοις ο ιησους αμην λεγω υμιν οτι οι τελωναι και αι πορναι προαγουσιν υμας εις την βασιλειαν του θεου
32.	For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.	Venit enim ad vos Joannes in via justitiæ, et non credidistis ei : publicani autem et meretrices crediderunt ei : vos autem videntes nec pœnitentiam habuistis postea, ut crederetis ei.	ηλθεν γαρ προς υμας ιωαννης εν οδω δικαιοσυνης και ουκ επιστευσατε αυτω οι δε τελωναι και αι πορναι επιστευσαν αυτω υμεις δε ιδοντες ου μετεμεληθητε υστερον του πιστευσαι αυτω

21:28–32

28. But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

29. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

30. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

31. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the Publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

32. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the Publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

JEROME. Thus much prefaced, the Lord brings forward a parable, to convict them of their irreligion, and shew them that the kingdom of God should be transferred to the Gentiles.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Those who are to be judged in this cause, He applies to as judges, that condemning themselves they might be shewn to be unworthy to be acquitted by any other. It is high confidence of the justness of a cause, that will entrust it to the decision of an adversary. But He veils the allusion to them in a parable, that they might not perceive that they were passing sentence upon themselves; A certain man had two sons. Who is he but God, who created all men, who being by nature Lord of all, yet would rather be loved as a father, than feared as a Lord. The elder son was the Gentile people, the younger the Jews, since from the time of Noah there had been Gentiles. And he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. To day, i. e. during this age. He spoke with him, not face to face as man, but to his heart as God, instilling understanding through the senses. To work in the vineyard is to do righteousness; for to cultivate the whole thereof, I know not that any one man is sufficient.

JEROME. He speaks to the Gentile people first, through their knowledge of the law of nature; Go and work in my vineyard; i. e. What you would not have done to you, that do not you to others. (Tobit 4:16.) He answers haughtily, I will not.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. For the Gentiles from the beginning leaving God and his righteousness, and going over to idols and sins, seem to make answer in their thoughts, We will not do the righteousness of God.

JEROME. But when, at the coming of the Saviour, the Gentile people, having done penitence, laboured in God’s vineyard, and atoned by their labour for the obstinacy of their refusal, this is what is said, But afterward he repented, and went. The second son is the Jewish people who made answer to Moses, All that the Lord hath said unto us we will do. (Exod. 24:3.)

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. But afterwards turning their backs, they lied unto God, according to that in the Psalms, The sons of the strangers have lied unto me. (Ps. 18:44.) This is what is said, But he went not. The Lord accordingly asks which of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. See how they have first sentence upon themselves, saying, that the elder son, that is, the Gentile people, did the will of his father. For it is better not to promise righteousness before God, and to do it, than to promise, and to fail.

ORIGEN. Whence we may gather, that in this parable the Lord spoke to such as promise little or nothing, but in their works shine forth; and against those who promise great things but do none of these things that they have promised.

JEROME. It should be known that in the correct copies it is read not The last, but The first, that they might be condemned by their own sentence. But should we prefer to read, as some have it, The last, the explanation is obvious, to say that the Jews understood the truth, but dissembled, and would not say what they thought; just as though they knew that the baptism of John was from heaven, they would not say so.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. The Lord abundantly confirms their decision, whence it follows, Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots shall go before you in the kingdom of God; as much as to say, Not only the Gentiles are before you, but even the publicans and the harlots.

RABANUS. Yet the kingdom of God may be understood of the Gentiles, or of the present Church, in which the Gentiles go before the Jews, because they were more ready to believe.

ORIGEN. Notwithstanding, the Jews are not shut out that they should never enter into the kingdom of God; but, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved. (Rom. 11:25.)

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. I suppose that the publicans here are to represent all sinful men, and the harlots all sinful women; because avarice is found the most prevailing vice among men, and fornication among women. For a woman’s life is passed in idleness and seclusion, which are great temptations to that sin, while a man, constantly occupied in various active duties, falls readily into the snare of covetousness, and not so commonly into fornication, as the anxieties of manly cares preclude thoughts of pleasure, which engage rather the young and idle. Then follows the reason of what He had said, For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.

RABANUS. John came preaching the way of righteousness, because he pointed to Christ, who is the fulfilling of the Law.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Or, because his venerable conversation smote the hearts of sinners, as it follows, But the Publicans and harlots believed on him. Mark how the good life of the preacher gives its force to his preaching, so as to subdue unsubdued hearts. And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him; as much as to say, They have done that which is more by believing on Him, ye have not even repented, which is less. But in this exposition which we have set forth according to the mind of many interpreters, there seems to me something inconsistent. For if by the two sons are to be understood the Jews and Gentiles, as soon as the Priests had answered that it was the first son that did his father’s will, then Christ should have concluded His parable with these words, Verily I say unto you, that the Gentiles shall go into the kingdom of God before you. But He says, The Publicans and harlots, a class rather of Jews than of Gentiles. Unless this is to be taken as was said above; So much rather the Gentile people please God than you, that even the Publicans and harlots are more acceptable to Him than you.

JEROME. Whence others think that the parable does not relate to Gentiles and Jews, but simply to the righteous and to sinners. These by their evil deeds had rejected God’s service, but after received from John the baptism of repentance; while the Pharisees who made a shew of righteousness, and boasted that they did the law of God, despising John’s baptism, did not follow his precepts.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. This He brings in because the Priests had asked not in order to learn, but to tempt Him. But of the common folk many had believed; and for that reason He brings forward the parable of the two sons, shewing them therein that the common sort, who from the first professed secular lives, were better than the Priests who from the first professed the service of God, inasmuch as the people at length turned repentant to God, but the Priests impenitent, never left off to sin against God. And the elder son represents the people; because the people is not for the sake of the Priests, but the Priests are for the sake of the people.

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

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From: Ezekiel 18:25-28

The Good Effects of Conversion
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[25] ”Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? [26] When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it; for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die. [27] Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life. [28] Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die."

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Commentary:

18:21-32. These verses reply to a question that may arise from the doctrine of personal retribution: If the sinner must live with the consequences of his sins, what is the purpose of repentance? Ezekiel takes the question very much to heart, and his reply includes one of the most beautiful summaries of divine mercy: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked..., and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’ (v. 23; cf. 33:11). It is true that the explanation of divine justice and punishment develops over a long period until the New Testament is reached; even so, from the very beginning of divine Revelation, there is never any doubt but that God is always ready to forgive. Over the centuries, Christian spirituality has written beautiful pages filled to overflowing with heartfelt trust in God’s mercy. As an example, we will quote a prayer by a Christian writer of the Armenian Church: “You are the Lord of Mercy. Have mercy on me, a sinner, who beseeches you with sighs and tears. [...] O kind and merciful Lord! You are patient with sinners, for you have said: "if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed none of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him" (Ezek 18:21-22). Look, see how I have come before you and fallen at your feet: your guilty servant pleads for your mercy. Do not recall my sins, nor spurn me because of my wickedness [...] You are the Lord of goodness and mercy; you forgive all sin” (John Mandakuni, Oratio, 2-3).

Of course, God’s forgiveness is closely interwoven with personal conversion. Therefore, it is not surprising to find these verses of Ezekiel being quoted in connection with the need for the sacrament of penance: “at all times, the practice of penance in order to obtain grace and attain righteousness was necessary for all those who fell into mortal sin, even those who sought to be washed clean by the waters of baptism, so that, when sinfulness had been purged and set to rights, they would detest any offense against God through their hatred of sin and the sorrow of their souls. Thus says the Prophet: 'Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin' (Ezek 18:30)” (Council of Trent, Session 14, 1). There is also a need for genuine contrition: “Contrition, which is the most important element of penance, is a sorrow of the soul, a hatred of all the sins that have been committed, and a desire not to sin again in the future. This sense of contrition has always been a fundamental condition of forgiveness; the man who falls into sin after his baptism can only receive pardon if he is contrite, trusts in the mercy of God, and fulfills all the other conditions that are binding in this sacrament. This Council declares that contrition encompasses not only the end of sin and the beginning of new life, but the reparation of the old, sinful life, as it was written: 'Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!' (Ezek 18:31)” (Council of Trent Session 14,4).

From: Philippians 2:1-11

Unity and Humility
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[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-Emptying
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[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,) [6] who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Commentary:

1-4. Verse 1 begins with a very awkwardly constructed clause, which the New Vulgate and the RSV translate literally. It is a conditional, rhetorical clause, rather than an affirmative statement, and its meaning is clarified by the rest of the sentence.

St Paul is making an affectionate appeal to the Christian good sense of the faithful; he seems to be saying: "If you want to console me in Christ, complete my joy by paying attention to the advice I am now going to give you" (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Phil, ad loc.).

The Apostle recommends that they should always act humbly and with an upright intention (vv. 3-4) if they want charity to reign among them (v. 2). In their work and social life ordinary Christians should be upright in all their dealings. They should go about everything, even apparently unimportant things, in a humble way, doing them for God. But they should also remember that their behavior has an effect on others. "Don't forget that you are also in the presence of men, and that they expect from you, from you personally, a Christian witness. Thus, as regards the human dimension of our job, we must work in such a way that we will not feel ashamed when those who know us and love us see us at our work, nor give them cause to feel embarrassed" ([St] J. Escriva, Friends of God, 66).

This fact that our behavior can encourage others and set a headline for them means that we need to act very responsibly: "Let us try therefore, brethren," St Augustine says, "not only to be good but to conduct ourselves well in the eyes of others. Let us try to see that there is nothing that our conscience upbraids us for, and also, bearing in mind our weakness, do all that we can, to avoid disedifying our less mature brother" (Sermon 47, 14).

3-11. Verse 3 exhorts us to see others as better than ourselves. Our Lord, although he was our superior in all respects, did not see his divinity as something to boast about before men (v. 6). In fact, he humbled himself and emptied himself (vv. 7-8), was not motivated by conceit or selfishness (cf. v. 3), did not look to his own interests (cf. v. 4), and "became obedient unto death" (v. 8), thereby carrying out the Father's plan for man's salvation. By reflecting on his example we shall come to see that suffering for Christ is a sign of salvation (cf. 1:28-29): after undergoing the sufferings of his passion and death, Christ was publicly exalted above all creation (cf. vv. 9-11).

Our Lord offers us a perfect example of humility. "The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Scepter of God's Majesty, was in no pomp of pride and haughtiness--as it could so well have been--but in self-abasement [...]. You see, dear friends, what an example we have been given. If the Lord humbled himself in this way, what ought we to do, who through him have come under the yoke of his guidance?" (St Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians, 13).

3-4. "'In every man,' writes St Thomas Aquinas, 'there are some grounds for others to look on him as superior, according to the Apostle's words, "Each of us must have the humility to think others better men than himself" (Phil 2:3). It is in this spirit that all men are bound to honor one another' (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 103, a. 2). Humility is the virtue that teaches us that signs of respect for others--their good name, their good faith, their privacy--are not external conventions, but the first expressions of charity and justice.

"Christian charity cannot confine itself to giving things or money to the needy. It seeks, above all, to respect and understand each person for what he is, in his intrinsic dignity as a man and child of God" ([St] J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 72).

5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when He was offering Himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Galatians 2:19)" ([Pope] Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 22).

6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he is--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced.

This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God and man.

The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine nature and which His human nature has merited.

The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.

Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. "We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," [St.] Monsignor Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or human ambitions.

"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" (Christ Is Passing By, 62).

6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed professes it, "the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God."

"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).

"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.

Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying (kenosis in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after death.

Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. "What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself" (Oratio I In Beatitudinibus).

From: Matthew 21:28-32

The Parable of the Two Sons
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(Jesus told the chief priests and the elders,) [28] "What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' [29] And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterwards he repented and went. [30] And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go. [31] Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. [32] For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

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32. St. John the Baptist had shown the way to sanctification by proclaiming the imminence of the Kingdom of God and by preaching conversion. The scribes and Pharisees would not believe him, yet they boasted of their faithfulness to God's teaching. They were like the son who says "I will go" and then does not go; the tax collectors and prostitutes who repented and corrected the course of their lives will enter the Kingdom before them: they are like the other son who says "I will not", but then does go. Our Lord stresses that penance and conversion can set people on the road to holiness even if they have been living apart from God for a long time.

Daily Word for Reflection -- The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries

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Other resources for this Sundays Readings:
Sunday Scripture Study for Catholics
The Sacred Page (Dr. John Bergsmas)—Is God Fair? Part 2. The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Catholic Productions (Dr. Brant Pitre) – The Readings Explained (video): The Parable of the Two Sons
Catholic Productions (Dr. Brant Pitre) – The Readings Explained (video): The Humility of the Divine Christ
LectioTube

The Appearance of Christ before the People

Alexander Ivanov

(Years of painting execution 1837-57)
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1

Responsorial Psalm

Reading 2

Alleluia

Gospel