From: 1 Kings 21:17-29
Naboth’s Vineyard, a further intervention by Elijah (Continuation)
[20] Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I
have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of
the Lord. [21] Behold, I will bring evil upon you; I will utterly sweep you away,
and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; [22] and I will make
your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of
Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and be-
cause you have made Israel to sin. [23] And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘The
dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ [24] Any on belonging to
Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one of his who dies in the
open country the birds of the air shall eat.”
[25] (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord
like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. [26] He did very abominably in going
after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people
of Israel.)
[27] And when Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth
upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. [28]
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, [29] “Have you seen
how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself
before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the
evil upon his house.”
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
21:17-24. Having defended belief in the true God against idolaters, Elijah now
defends human rights in the name of God himself. He acts very much in the same
same style as Nathan did towards David when the latter had someone murdered
to disguise his affair with Bathsheba (cf. 2 Sam 12). Because Ahab allowed injus-
tice to be done, he is judged to have been as guilty as Jezebel. The first punish-
ment that the prophet announces is in line with the law of vengeance (v. 19; Ex
21:23-25), and we see it applied in 22:38. But then he changes his focus and
announces that Ahab’s whole dynasty is going to pay for his transgression (vv.
21-22). Jezebel, being a foreigner and evil in the extreme, dies a horrible death
(in 2 Kings 9:30-37).
21:25-28. Despite his reprehensible conduct (summed up here in an aside; vv.
25-26), Ahab gives evidence of his repentance and is rewarded for it: his son will
be allowed to succeed him (v. 28).
The figure of Ahab, a sad and humbled king, contrasts with that of Naboth, only a
vassal, yet a happy man. That is how St Ambrose of Milan sees them in his book
commenting on the passage – on Naboth. The same saint says elsewhere, “Na-
both was happy, even when he was [being] stoned by the rich man, for although
he was poor and weak in comparison to the powerful king, he was made rich in
loyal feeling and piety by not accepting the king’s money in exchange for the vine-
yard that belonged to his family; and because he defended the rights of his people
at the cost of his own life, his actions were irreproachable. Ahab, on the other
hand, was a sinner – even in his own estimation – because he had sentenced a
poor man to death in order to take control of the vineyard” (De officiis, 2, 5, 17).
In Naboth, too, we can see a figure of Christ, who was crucified after false witness
was laid against him, yet he was the Son of God, the Lord of the vineyard, that is,
Israel (cf. Mt 21:23).
*********************************************************************************************
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: Matthew 5:43-48
Jesus and His Teaching, the Fulfillment of the Law (Continuation)
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
43. The first part of this verse—”You shall love your neighbor”—is to be found in
Leviticus 19:18. The second part—”hate your enemy”—is not to be found in the
Law of Moses. However, Jesus’ words refer to a widespread rabbinical interpre-
tation which understood “neighbors” as meaning “Israelites”. Our Lord corrects
this misinterpretation of the Law: for Him everyone is our neighbor (cf. the parable
of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37).
43-47. This passage sums up the teaching which precedes it. Our Lord goes so
far as to say that a Christian has no personal enemies. His only enemy is evil
as such—sin—but not the sinner. Jesus Himself puts this into practice with those
who crucified Him, and He continues to act in the same way towards sinners
who rebel against Him and despise Him. Consequently, the saints have always
followed His example—like St. Stephen, the first martyr, who prayed for those
who were putting him to death. This is the apex of Christian perfection—to love,
and pray for, even those who persecute us and calumniate us. It is the distin-
guishing mark of the children of God.
46. “Tax collectors”: the Roman empire had no officials of its own for the
collection of taxes: in each country it used local people for this purpose. These
were free to engage agents (hence we find reference to “chief tax collectors”: cf.
Luke 19:2). The global amount of tax for each region was specified by the Roman
authorities; the tax collectors levied more than this amount, keeping the surplus
for themselves: this led them to act rather arbitrarily, which was why the people
hated them. In the case of the Jews, insult was added to injury by the fact that
the chosen people were being exploited by Gentiles.
48. Verse 48 is, in a sense, a summary of the teaching in this entire chapter,
including the Beatitudes. Strictly speaking, it is quite impossible for a created
being to be as perfect as God. What our Lord means here is that God’s own
perfection should be the model which every faithful Christian tries to follow,
even though he realizes that there is an infinite distance between himself and
his Creator. However, this does not reduce the force of this commandment; it
sheds more light on it. It is a difficult commandment to live up to, but along with
this we must take account of the enormous help grace gives us to go so far as
to tend towards divine perfection. Certainly, perfection which we should imitate
does not refer to the power and wisdom of God, which are totally beyond our
scope; here the context seems to refer primarily to love and mercy. Along the
same lines, St. Luke quotes these words of our Lord: “Be merciful, even as your
Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36; cf. note on Luke 6:20-49).
Clearly, the “universal call to holiness” is not a recommendation but a command-
ment of Jesus Christ.
“Your duty is to sanctify yourself. Yes, even you. Who thinks that this task is
only for priests and religious? To everyone, without exception, our Lord said: `Be
ye perfect, as My Heavenly Father is perfect’” ([Blessed] J. Escriva, “The Way”,
291). This teaching is sanctioned by chapter 5 of Vatican II’s Constitution “Lumen
Gentium”, where it says (40): “The Lord Jesus, divine teacher and model of all
perfection, preached holiness of life (of which He is the author and maker) to each
and every one of His disciples without distinction:`You, therefore, must be perfect,
as your Heavenly Father is perfect’ [...]. It is therefore quite clear that all
Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and
to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fos-
tered also in earthly society.”
*********************************************************************************************
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.