September 16, 2012

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Is 50:5-9a

The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let that man confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?

Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R. (9) I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice in supplication,
Because he has inclined his ear to me
the day I called.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;
I fell into distress and sorrow,
And I called upon the name of the LORD,
"O LORD, save my life!"
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gracious is the LORD and just;
yes, our God is merciful.
The LORD keeps the little ones;
I was brought low, and he saved me.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For he has freed my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading 2 Jas 2:14-18

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.

Indeed someone might say,
"You have faith and I have works."
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

Gospel Mk 8:27-35

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it."

From: Isaiah 50:4-9a

Third Song of the Servant of the Lord

[4] The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught;
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him that is weary.
Morning by morning he wakens,
he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
[5] The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I turned not backward.
[6] I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

[7] For the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been confounded;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
[8] he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near me.
[9] Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?

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Commentary:

50:4-9. The second song dealt with the servant’s mission (cf. 49:6); the third song
focuses on the servant himself. The term “servant” as such does not appear here,
and therefore some commentators read the passage as being a description of a
prophet and not part of the songs. Still, the context (cf. 50:10) does suggest that
the protagonist is the servant. The poem is neatly constructed in three stanzas,
each beginning with the words, “The Lord God” (vv. 4, 5, 7), and it has a conclu-
sion containing that same wording (v. 9). The first stanza emphasizes the ser-
vant’s docility to the word of God; that is, he is not depicted as a self-taught tea-
cher with original ideas, but as an obedient disciple. The second (vv. 5-6) speaks
of the suffering that that docility has brought him, without his uttering a word of
complaint. The third (vv. 7-8) shows how determined the servant is: if he suffers
in silence, it is not out of cowardice but because God helps him and makes him
stronger than his persecutors. The conclusion (v. 9) is like the verdict of a trial:
when all is said and done, the servant will stand tall, and all his ene- mies will be
struck down.

The evangelists saw the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus — es-
pecially what the song has to say about the suffering and silent fortitude of the
servant. The Gospel of John, for example, quotes Nicodemus’ acknowledgment
of Christ’s wisdom: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for
no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him” (Jn 3:21). But
the description of the servant’s sufferings was the part that most impressed the
early Christians; that part of the song was recalled when they meditated on the
passion of Jesus and how “they spat in his face; and struck him; and some
slapped him” (Mt 26:67) and later how the Roman soldiers “spat upon him, and
took the reed and struck him on the head” (Mt 27:30; cf. also Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3).
St Paul refers to v. 9 when applying to Christ Jesus the role of intercessor on be-
half of the elect in the suit pressed constantly against them by the enemies of
the soul: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (Rom 8:33).

St Jerome sees the servant’s docility as a reference to Christ: “His self-discipline
and wisdom enabled him to communicate to us the knowledge of the Father. And
he was obedient onto death, death on the cross; he offered his body to the blows
they struck, his shoulders to the lash; and though he was wounded on the chest
and on his face, he did not try to turn away and escape their violence” (”Commen-
tarii In Isaiam”, 50, 4). This passage is used in the liturgy of Palm Sunday (along
with Psalm 22 and St Paul’s hymn in the Letter to the Philippians 2:6-11), before
the reading of our Lord’s passion.

*********************************************************************************************
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: James 2:14-18

Faith Without Good Works Is Dead

[14] What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not
works? Can this faith save him? [15] If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack
of daily food, [16] and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and
filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
[17] So faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

[18] But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your
faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. [19] You
believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.

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

14-26. This passage forms the core of the letter. The sapiential method (often
used in the Old Testament) and pedagogical style of the passage help to engrave
the message on the readers’ minds: unless faith is accompanied by works, it is
barren, dead. This basic message, with different variances, is stated up to five
times (verses 14, 17, 18, 20, 26), in a cyclical, repetitive way.

The initial rhetorical question (verse 14) and the simple, vivid example of a person
who is content with giving good advice to someone in urgent need of the bare es-
sentials (verses 15-16), catch the disciples’ attention and predispose them to ac-
cept the core message, which is couched in the form of a sapiential maxim
(verse 17).

The narrative retains its conventional tone, with a series of questions; we are
given three examples of faith: firstly (a negative example), the faith of demons,
which is of no avail (verses 18-19); contrasting with this, the faith of Abraham,
the model and father of believers (verses 20-23); and finally, the faith of a sinner
whose actions won her salvation, Rabah, the prostitute (verses 24-25). The last
sentence once again repeats the essential idea: “faith apart from works is dead”
(verse 26).

14. This teaching is perfectly in line with that of the Master: “Not every one who
says to Me, `Lord, Lord’, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does
the will of My Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

A faith without deeds cannot obtain salvation: “Even though incorporated into the
Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains
indeed in the bosom of the Church, but `in body’ not `in heart’. All children of the
Church should nevertheless remember that their exalted condition results not
from their own merits but from the grace of Christ. If they fail to respond in
thought, word, and deed to that grace, not only shall they not be saved, but they
shall be the more severely judged” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 14).

In the Christian life, therefore, there needs to be complete consistency between
the faith we profess and the deeds we do. “Unity of life”, one of the key features
of the spirituality of Opus Dei, tries to counter the danger of people leading a dou-
ble life, “on the one hand, an inner life, a life related to God; and on the other, as
something separate and distinct, their professional, social and family lives, made
up of small earthly realities [...]. There is only one life, made of flesh and spirit.
And it is that life which has to become, in both body and soul, holy and filled with
God: we discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things” (St. J.
Escriva, “In Love with the Church”, 52).

15-16. This very graphic example is similar to that in the First Letter of St. John:
“If any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his
heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17); and the
conclusion is also along the same lines: “Little children, let us not love in word
or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). St. Paul gives the same tea-
ching: “the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians
4:20). Actions, works, measure the genuineness of the Christian life; they show
whether our faith and charity are real.

Almsgiving, for example, so often praised and recommended in Scripture (cf.,
e.g., Deuteronomy 15:11; Tobias 4:7-11; Luke 12:33; Acts 9:36; 2 Corinthians 8:
9), is very often a duty. Christ “will count a kindness done or refused to the poor
as done or refused to Himself [...]. Whoever has received from the divine bounty
a large share of temporal blessings whether they be external or material, or gifts
of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting
of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the ste-
ward of God’s providence, for the benefit of others” (Leo XIII, “Rerum Novarum”,
24).

17. As well as involving firm adherence to revealed truth, faith must influence a
Christian’s ordinary life and be a standard against which he measures his con-
duct. When one’s works are not in accordance with one’s beliefs, then one’s
faith is dead.

Christian teaching also describes as “dead faith” the faith of a person in mortal
sin: because he is not in the grace of God he does not have charity, which is as
it were the soul of all the other virtues. “Faith without hope and charity neither
perfectly unites a man with Christ nor makes him a living member of His body.
Therefore it is said most truly that `faith apart from works is dead’ (James 2:17ff)
and useless” (Council of Trent, “De Iustificatione”, 7).

18. The Apostle makes it crystal clear that faith without work makes no sense at
all. “The truth of faith includes not only inner belief, but also outward profession,
which is expressed not only by declaration of one’s belief, but also by the actions
by which a person shows that he has faith” (St. Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”,
II-II, q. 124, a. 5).

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

From: Mark 8:27-35

Peter’s Profession of Faith

[27] And Jesus went on with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi;
and on the way He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” [28] And
they told Him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others one of the
prophets.” [29] And He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answered
Him, “You are the Christ.” [30] And He charged them to tell no one about Him.

Jesus Foretells His Passion and Resurrection. Christian Renunciation

[31] And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed,
and after three days rise again. [32] And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him,
and began to rebuke Him. [33] But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked
Peter, and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but
of men.”

[34] And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If
any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. [35] For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses
his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

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Commentary:

29. Peter’s profession of faith is reported here in a shorter form than in Matthew
16:18-19. Peter seems to go no further than say that Jesus is the Christ, the
Messiah. Eusebius of Caesarea, in the fourth century, explains the Evangelist’s
reserve by the fact that he was the interpreter of St. Peter, who omitted from his
preaching anything which might appear to be self-praise. The Holy Spirit, when
inspiring St. Mark, wanted the Gospel to reflect the preaching of the prince of
the Apostles, leaving it to other evangelists to fill out certain important details to
do with the episode of the confession of Peter.

The sketchiness of the narrative still show Peter’s role quite clearly: he is the
first to come forward affirming the messiahship of Jesus. Our Lord’s question,
“But who do you say that I am?”, shows what Jesus is asking the Apostles for
— not an opinion, more or less favorable, but firm faith. It is St. Peter who ex-
presses this faith (cf. note on Matthew 16:13-20).

31-33. This is the first occasion when Jesus tells His disciples about the suffe-
rings and death He must undergo. He does it twice more, later on (cf. Mark 9:31
and 10:32). The Apostles are surprised, because they cannot and do not want
to understand why the Master should have to suffer and die, much less that He
should be so treated “by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes.” But
Peter, with his usual spontaneity, immediately begins to protest. And Jesus re-
plies to him using the same words as He addressed the devil when he tempted
Him (cf. Matthew 4:10); He wants to affirm, once again, that His mission is spi-
ritual, not earthly, and that therefore it cannot be understood by using mere hu-
man criteria: it is governed by God’s designs, which were that Jesus should re-
deem us through His passion and death. So too, for a Christian, suffering, united
with Christ, is also a means of salvation.

34. When Jesus said “If any man would come after me ...”, he was well aware
that in fulfilling his mission he would be brought to death on a cross; this is why
he speaks clearly about his passion (vv:31-32). The Christian life, lived as it
should be lived, with all its demands, is also a cross which one has to carry,
following Christ.

Jesus’ words, which must have seemed extreme to his listeners, indicate the
standard he requires his followers to live up to. He does not ask for short-lived
enthusiasm or occasional dedication; he asks everyone to renounce himself, to
take up his cross and follow him. For the goal he sets men is eternal life. This
whole Gospel passage has to do with man’s eternal destiny. The present life
should be evaluated in the light of this eternal life: life on earth is not definitive,
but transitory and relative; it is a means to be used to achieve definitive life in
heaven: “All that, which worries you for the moment, is of relative importance.
What is of absolute importance is that you be happy, that you be saved” (St.
J. Escriva, The Way, 297).

“There is a kind of fear around, a fear of the Cross, of our Lord’s Cross. What
has happened is that people have begun to regard as crosses all the unpleasant
things that crop up in life, and they do not know how to take them as God’s chil-
dren should, with supernatural outlook. So much so, that they are even removing
the roadside crosses set up by our forefathers. . . ! “In the Passion, the Cross
ceased to be a symbol of punishment and became instead a sign of victory. The
Cross is the emblem of the Redeemer: in quo est salus,vita et resurrectio nostra:
there lies our salvation, our life and our resurrection” (St. J. Escriva, The Way of
the Cross, II, 5).

35. “Life”: in the original text and the New Vulgate the word literally means “soul.”
But here, as in many other cases, “soul” and “life” are equivalent. The word “life”
is used, clearly, in a double sense: earthly life and eternal life, the life of man
here on earth and man’s eternal happiness in heaven. Death can put an end to
earthly life, but it cannot destroy eternal life (cf. Mt 10:28), the life which can
only be given by Him who brings the dead back to life.

Understood in this way, we can grasp the paradoxical meaning of our Lord’s
phrase: whoever wishes to save his (earthly) life will lose his (eternal) life. But
whoever loses his (earthly) life for me and the Gospel, will save his (eternal) life.
What, then, does saving one’s (earthly) life mean? It means living this life as if
here were none other — letting oneself be controlled by the lust of the flesh and
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (cf. 1 Jn 2: 16). And losing one’s (earthly)
life means mortifying, by continuous ascetical effort, this triple concupiscence —
that is, taking up one’s cross (v. 34} — and consequently seek ing and savouring
the things that are God’s and not the things of the earth (cf. Col 3:1-2).

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

Readings at Mass

First reading	Isaiah 50:5-9 ©

The Lord has opened my ear.

For my part, I made no resistance,

neither did I turn away.

I offered my back to those who struck me,

my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;

I did not cover my face

against insult and spittle.

The Lord comes to my help,

so that I am untouched by the insults.

So, too, I set my face like flint;

I know I shall not be shamed.

My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me?

Then let us go to court together.

Who thinks he has a case against me?

Let him approach me.

The Lord is coming to my help,

who will dare to condemn me?

Psalm	Psalm 114:1-6,8-9 ©