June 20, 2014

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah,
saw that her son was dead,
she began to kill off the whole royal family.
But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah,
took Joash, his son, and spirited him away, along with his nurse,
from the bedroom where the princes were about to be slain.
She concealed him from Athaliah, and so he did not die.
For six years he remained hidden in the temple of the LORD,
while Athaliah ruled the land.

But in the seventh year,
Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carians
and of the guards.
He had them come to him in the temple of the LORD,
exacted from them a sworn commitment,
and then showed them the king’s son.

The captains did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded.
Each one with his men, both those going on duty for the sabbath
and those going off duty that week,
came to Jehoiada the priest.
He gave the captains King David’s spears and shields,
which were in the temple of the LORD.
And the guards, with drawn weapons,
lined up from the southern to the northern limit of the enclosure,
surrounding the altar and the temple on the king’s behalf.
Then Jehoiada led out the king’s son
and put the crown and the insignia upon him.
They proclaimed him king and anointed him,
clapping their hands and shouting, “Long live the king!”

Athaliah heard the noise made by the people,
and appeared before them in the temple of the LORD.
When she saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the custom,
and the captains and trumpeters near him,
with all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets,
she tore her garments and cried out, “Treason, treason!”
Then Jehoiada the priest instructed the captains
in command of the force:
“Bring her outside through the ranks.
If anyone follows her,” he added, “let him die by the sword.”
He had given orders that she
should not be slain in the temple of the LORD.
She was led out forcibly to the horse gate of the royal palace,
where she was put to death.

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD as one party
and the king and the people as the other,
by which they would be the LORD’s people;
and another covenant, between the king and the people.
Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal
and demolished it.
They shattered its altars and images completely,
and slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars.
Jehoiada appointed a detachment for the temple of the LORD.
All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet,
now that Athaliah had been slain with the sword
at the royal palace.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 132:11, 12, 13-14, 17-18

R. (13) The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.
The LORD swore to David
a firm promise from which he will not withdraw:
“Your own offspring
I will set upon your throne.”
R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.
“If your sons keep my covenant
and the decrees which I shall teach them,
Their sons, too, forever
shall sit upon your throne.”
R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.
For the LORD has chosen Zion;
he prefers her for his dwelling.
“Zion is my resting place forever;
in her will I dwell, for I prefer her.”
R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.
“In her will I make a horn to sprout forth for David;
I will place a lamp for my anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but upon him my crown shall shine.”
R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

Gospel Mt 6:19-23

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

From: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20

Athaliah, queen of Judah (842-836)

[1] Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she
arose and destroyed all the royal family. [2] But Jehosheba, the daughter of
King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him a-
way from among the king’s sons who were about to be slain, and she put him
and his nurse in a bedchamber. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was
not slain; [3] and he remained with her six years, hid in the house of the Lord,
while Athaliah reigned over the land.

Joash anointed king of Judah

[4] But in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Ca-
rites and of the guards, and had them come to him in the house of the Lord;
and had them come to him in the house of the Lord; and he made a covenant
with them and put them under oath in the house of the Lord, and he showed
them the king’s son.

[9] The captains did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and
each brought his men who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who
were to come on duty on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. [10]
And the priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been
King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord; [11] and the guards stood,
every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to
the north side of the house, around the altar and the house. [12] Then he
brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testi-
mony; and they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their
hands, and said, “Long live the king!”

Death of Athaliah

[13] When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went in-
to the house of the Lord to the people; [14] and when she looked, there was the
king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the
trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing
trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” [15] Then
Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring
her out between the ranks; and slay with the sword any one who follow her.” For
the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord.” [16] So they laid
hands on her; and she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house,
and there she was slain.

Joash takes up his throne

[20] So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet after Athaliah
had been slain with the sword at the king’s house.

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Commentary:

11:1-12:22. Through the sons of Ahab, worship of Baal began to be practised
not only in Israel but also in Judah through King Joram’s marriage to Athaliah,
of the house of Ahab (cf. 8:25-27). This meant that Judah, too, had to undergo
the same sort of cleansing as Jehu had forced on the Northern kingdom. Chap-
ters 11 and 12, in this sense, parallel the preceding ones. But in Judah there
was to be no change of dynasty: the line of David must continue, in keeping
with the promise of 2 Samuel 7:1-17. Therefore, God steers events in another
way – through the providential rescue of a son of the king (vv. 1-3), who is anoin-
ted (v. 12) in the temple, and after the death of the idolatrous queen, through the
renewal of the Covenant (vv. 17-18) and the enthronement of David’s descendant
(vv. 19-20).

11:1-3. Athaliah acts out of greed for power: she wants no rivals for the throne.
But eliminating the house of David was at odds with God’s plan (cf. 2 Sam 7:1-
17). The temple of Jerusalem and its priesthood symbolized divine protection of
the Jehoash. According to 2 Chronicles 22:11 Jeho-shabe-ath was the wife of the
chief priest, Jehoiada, and, although the daughter of King Jehoram, she would
have been the daughter of another wife of the king; that is, she and Athaliah would
have been half-sisters. The account in the book of Chronicles (which pays closer
attention than Kings to temple affairs) has more to say about the family of Jeho-
ram (cf. 2 Chron 21-22).

11:4-12. It is significant that Jehoiada begins to take action in the seventh year,
for this was a jubilee year, a year of rest, redemption and deliverance (cf. Lev
25:2-7). The Carites were mercenaries who took service with whomever paid
them; they may have been the Cherethites mentioned in 1 Kings 1:38. The “tes-
timony” (v. 12), interpreted as “royal insignia” in the Septuagint, is more likely to
have been a list of royal titles belonging to the anointed, or a copy of the ten com-
mandments (described in Exodus 25:16 as “testimonies”), or, more likely still, a
document listing the king’s duties towards the Covenant established with God in
Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Anyway, the theme of the Covenant is present in the
narrative (cf. v. 17).

11:13-16. The house of the Lord is sacred, and therefore blood may not be spilt
within it. The sacred writer records this detail, possibly drawing a contrast with
what happened in the temple of Baal in Samaria where Jehu killed the priests
(cf. 10:25).

11:17-18. Following on the religious infidelity and social changes imposed by
the recent kings of Judah, the Covenant with the Lord needed to be renewed; the
people needed to commit itself to being the people of God, as it had been done
at other key points (cf. Ex 24; Jn 24). There was also need to re-establish the
relationship between king and people in line with the traditional pact described
in 2 Samuel 5:3. Idolatry must have made big inroads in Jerusalem if there was
a temple of Baal in the city (Athaliah’s doing, no doubt).

11:19-20. Following the death of Athaliah comes this little item which seems to
be from a different tradition from that in v. 16. The sacred writer does not count
Athaliah as a monarch of Judah, as one can see from the fact that the account
ends without the usual summary of her reign.

*********************************************************************************************
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 6:19-23

Trust in God’s Fatherly Providence

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [19] “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, [20]
but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust con-
sumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also.

[22] “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body
will be full of light; [23] but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full
of darkness.”

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

19-21. The idea here is very clear: man’s heart yearns for a treasure which will
give him security and happiness. However, every treasure in the form of earthly
goods—wealth, property—becomes a constant source of worry, because there is
always the risk we will lose it or because the effort to protect it is such a strain.

Against this, Jesus teaches us here that our true treasure lies in good works and
an upright life, which will be eternally rewarded by God in Heaven. That indeed is
a treasure which one never loses, a treasure on which Christ’s disciple should put
his heart.

Jesus closes the teaching contained in the preceding verses with a kind of refrain
(verse 21). He is not saying that people should be unconcerned about earthly
things; what He does say is that no created thing can be “the treasure”, the ult-
imate aim, of man. What man should do is make his way to God, sanctify him-
self and give all glory to God, by making right use of the noble things of the earth:
“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Co-
rinthians 10:31; cf. Colossians 3:17).

22-23. Here is another jewel of Jesus’ wisdom teaching. It begins with a sentence
which is then immediately explained. The Master uses the simile of the eye as a
lamp which provides the body with light. Christian exegesis has seen this “eye”,
this “lamp”, as meaning the motivation behind our behavior. St. Thomas explains
it in this way: “The eye refers to motive. When a person wants to do something,
he first forms an intention: thus, if your intention is sound—simple and clear—that
is to say, if it is directed towards God, your whole body, that is, all your actions,
will be sound, sincerely directed towards good” (St. Thomas Aquinas, “Commen-
tary on St. Matthew”, 6, 22-23).

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

Readings at Mass

First reading

2 Kings 11:1-4,9-18,20 ©

When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly did away with all those of royal stock. But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, secretly took away Jehoash, her brother’s son, from among the sons of the king who were being murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way she hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. He stayed with her for six years, hidden in the Temple of the Lord, while Athaliah governed the country.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the commanders of hundreds of the Carians and of the guards, and had them brought to him in the Temple of the Lord. He made a pact with them and, putting them under oath, showed them the king’s son.

The commanders of hundreds did everything as Jehoiada the priest had ordered. They brought their men, those coming off duty on the sabbath together with those mounting guard on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. The priest equipped the commanders of hundreds with King David’s spears and shields which were in the Temple of the Lord. The guards formed up, each man with his weapon in his hand, from the south corner to the north corner of the Temple, surrounding the altar and the Temple.’ Then Jehoiada brought out the king’s son, put the crown and armlets on him, and he anointed him king. They clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’

Athaliah, on hearing the shouts of the people made for the Temple of the Lord where the people were. When she saw the king standing there beside the pillar, as the custom was, with the captains and trumpeters at the king’s side, and all the country people rejoicing and sounding trumpets, Athaliah tore her garments and shouted, ‘Treason, treason!’ Then Jehoiada the priest gave the order to the army officers: ‘Take her outside the precincts and put to death anyone who follows her.’ ‘For’ the priest had reasoned, ‘she must not be put to death in the Temple of the Lord.’ They seized her, and when she had reached the palace through the Entry of the Horses, she was put to death there.

Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and king and people, by which the latter undertook to be the people of the Lord; and also between king and people. All the country people then went to the temple of Baal and demolished it; they smashed his altars and his images and killed Mattan, priest of Baal, in front of the altars.

The priest posted sentries to guard the Temple of the Lord. All the country people were delighted, and the city made no move. And they put Athaliah to death in the royal palace.

Psalm

Psalm 131:11-14,17-18 ©