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From: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14

The Lord’s Ire

[7] And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought
up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; [8] they have turned aside
quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves
a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your
gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”’ [9] And the LORD
said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;
[10] now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I
may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.”

Moses’ Prayer for Israel

[11] But Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, “0 LORD, why does thy
wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land
of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

[13] “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst
swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants
as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your
descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.”’ [14] And the LORD repented of
the evil which he thought to do to his people.

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Commentary:

32:7-14. The Lord’s dialogue with Moses contains the doctrinal basis of salvation
history—Covenant, sin, mercy. Only the Lord knows just how serious this sin is:
by adoring the golden calf the people have taken the wrong road and have vitia-
ted the whole meaning of the Exodus; but most of all, they have rebelled against
God and turned their backs on him, breaking the Covenant (cf. Deut 9:7-14). God
no longer calls them “my people” (cf. Hos 2:8) but “your people” (Moses’) (v. 7).
That is, he shows him that they have acted like anyone else, guided by human
leaders.

The punishment that the sin deserves is their destruction (v. 10), for this is a stiff-
necked nation (cf. 33:3; 34:9; Deut 9:13). The sin deserves death, as the first sin
did (Gen 3:19) and the sin which gave rise to the flood (cf. Gen 6:6-7). However,
mercy always prevails over the offense.

As Abraham did in another time on behalf of Sodom (Gen 18:22-23), Moses inter-
cedes with the Lord. But this time intercession proves successful, because Israel
is the people that God has made his own; he chose it, bringing it out of Egypt
in a mighty way; so, he cannot turn back now; in fact, he chose it ever since he
swore his oath to Abraham (cf. Gen 15:5; 22:16-17; 35:11-12). He established the
Covenant with Israel, as Moses reminds him when he refers to “thy people, whom
thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt’ (v. 11). Thus, promise, election
and Covenant form the foundation which guarantees that God’s forgiveness will
be forthcoming, even if they commit the gravest of sins.

God forgives his people (v. 14) not because they deserve to be forgiven, but out
of pure mercy and moved by Moses’ intercession. Thus God’s forgiveness and the
people’s conversion are, both of them, a divine initiative.

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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: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Greeting

[1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of
Christ Jesus our hope,

[2] To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul Recalls His Own Conversion

[12] I thank him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our
Lord, because he judged me faithful by appointing me to his service,
[13] though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him; but
I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, [14] and the
grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in
Christ Jesus. [15] The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save. And I am the foremost
of sinners; [16] but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the
foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example
to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. [17] To the king of
ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever
and ever. Amen.

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Commentary:

12-13. This clearly autobiographical passage, which shows the
Apostle’s humility (cf., e.g., 1 Cor 15:9-10), is evidence of the
letter’s Pauline authorship: it is difficult to believe that a later
disciple would have dared to call St Paul a “blasphemer”,
“persecutor” or “insulter” or made him describe himself as “the
foremost of sinners”.

St Paul’s conversion is an example of a miracle of grace; only by the
mercy of God could he have been changed and become the Apostle of
the Gentiles and such a faithful minister of the Gospel. This change
which grace worked in Paul can also help all who approach the Church
to have great confidence in God’s mercy and forgiveness; like a good
father, God is always ready to receive the repentant sinner.

The sacred text shows quite clearly that the initiative lies with God
when it comes to calling people to Church office. The call to the
priesthood is a grace from God; it is God who makes the choice
and then he gives the person he has chosen the strength to fulfill
his office worthily. In this connection Bishop Alvaro del Portillo
has written: “Christian priesthood is not, then, in the line of ethical
relationships among men nor on the level of a merely human attempt
to approach God: it is a gift from God and it is irreversibly located on
the vertical line of the search for man by his Creator and Sanctifier
and on the sacramental line of the gratuitous opening up to man
of God’s intimate life. In other words, Christian priesthood is
essentially (this is the only possible way it can be understood) an
eminently sacred mission, both in its origin (Christ) and in its
content (the divine mystery) and by the very manner in which it is
conferred—a sacrament” (”On Priesthood”, pp. 59f).

14. “In Christ Jesus”: this expression is being used with a special
technical meaning: it refers to the position of the new man who,
after the “washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit”
(Titus 3:5) which takes place at Baptism, is now united to Christ,
made a Christian. At Baptism the mercy of God not only justifies
the sinner but causes him to share profoundly in God’s own life by
means of grace, faith and love. These three gifts are a sign that the
Christian has truly been built into the body of Christ (cf. 2 Tim
1:13).

15. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance”: or, more
literally, “Word of honor, which you can totally rely on”. This form
of words is used a number of times in the Pastoral Epistles to focus
attention on some important doctrinal point (cf. 1 Tim 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim
2:11; Tit 3-8).

The point being emphasized here is that “Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners”. The Apostle has condensed into very few words
God’s plan for the redemption of mankind, which he will go on to say
more about later (cf. 1 Tim 2:3-7; Tit 2:11-14; 3:3-7). “The mercy of
God is infinite,” says St Francis of Assisi, “and, according to the
Gospel, even if our sins were infinite, his mercy is yet greater than
our sins. And the Apostle St Paul has said that Christ the blessed
came into the world to save sinners” (”The Little Flowers of St Francis”,
chap. 26).

This is in fact one of the basic truths of faith and appears in the Creed:
“For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven”. He
came to save us from the only evil, that which can separate us from
God—sin.

By his victory over sin Christ gave men and women the honor of being
sons and daughters of God; this new character and status equips them
o light up the world around them with the brightness of their Christian
lives (cf. Phil 2:15). They can have this effect on others if they really
commit themselves to have the same mind as “was in Christ Jesus”
(Phil 2:5), for “it is impossible to live according to the heart of Jesus
Christ and not to know that we are sent, as he was, ‘to save all
sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15), with the clear realization that we ourselves
need to trust in the mercy of God more and more every day. As a result,
we will foster in ourselves a vehement desire to be co-redeemers with
Christ, to save all souls with him” ([St] J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing
By”, 121).

17. This section (vv. 12-17) closes with a solemn doxology. Similar
exclamatory passages in praise of God appear elsewhere in the Apostle’s
writings (Rom 2:36; 16:27; Phil 4:20; etc.). This was probably an early
formula used in the liturgy of Ephesus and other Asia Minor churches.
The fact that it ends with an “Amen” seems to confirm this. In contrast
to the energetic attempts of the civil authorities at the time to foster
emperor-worship, Christians proclaimed that God is lord of the universe
and will reign forever.

It is true, of course, that because God’s glory is infinite, it cannot be
enhanced by man extolling God’s attributes. However, once one knows
the greatness of God, creator and ruler of the universe, and knows that
all things are dependent on him, one has a duty to show God due honor
both internally and externally. Actions of that kind are expressions of
the virtue of religion, whose “actions are directly and immediately
ordered to the honor of God” (”Summa Theologiae” II-II, q. 81, a. 61).
“Of all the duties which man has to fulfill that, without doubt, is the
chiefest and holiest which commands him to worship God with devotion
and piety. This follows of necessity from the truth that we are ever in
the power of God, are ever guided by his will and providence, and,
having come forth from him, must return to him” (Leo XIII, “Libertas
Praestantissimum”, 25).

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