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Friday – Seventeenth Week – OT2
Readings: Jer 26:1-9; Mt 13:54-58.
Reading 1 (Jer 26:1-9):
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim,
son of Josiah, king of Judah,
this message came from the LORD:
Thus says the LORD:
Stand in the court of the house of the LORD
and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah
who come to worship in the house of the LORD;
whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.
Perhaps they will listen and turn back,
each from his evil way,
so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them
for their evil deeds.
Say to them: Thus says the LORD:
If you disobey me,
not living according to the law I placed before you
and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets,
whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them,
I will treat this house like Shiloh,
and make this the city to which all the nations of the earth
shall refer when cursing another.
Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people
heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.
When Jeremiah finished speaking
all that the LORD bade him speak to all the people,
the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying,
“You must be put to death!
Why do you prophesy in the name of the LORD:
‘This house shall be like Shiloh,’ and
‘This city shall be desolate and deserted?'”
And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
Gospel (Mt 13:54-58):
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.
They were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son’
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas’
Are not his sisters all with us’
Where did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.”
And he did not work many mighty deeds there
because of their lack of faith.
Fr. Anthony Dinh Minh Tien, O.P.
I. THEME: Truth is often twisted.
People don’t want to accept truth because it hurts. For example, the congressmen shall not want to hear priests talking about social justices when they are unjustly treating the poor. To cover their sins, people used to twisted the truth by adding or substracting God’s teaching, prophets’ teachings or their enemy’s words.
Today readings highlight reasons which people refuses to accept the truth. In the first reading, the Lord commanded the prophet Jeremiah to carefully announce for the house of Judah all what He said and Jeremiah did so; but the Judahites which included the priests, the prophets, and all the people, didn’t only want to hear Jeremiah’s announcement but also seized him because of his foretelling of damages which shall happen to the temple. In the Gospel, Jesus came to Nazareth to teach his fellow-countrymen about God’s wisdom. His people, even though they recognized God’s wisdom is hidden in him, denied what he taught out of pride and prejudice.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: Let search the truth.
1.1/ The truth came from God through Jeremiah: To search for the truth, let carefully examine what God commanded the prophet to say and what people understood.
(1) What God said to Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord; whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing. Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds. Say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them, I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another.”
(2) After that, the passage reported: “Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord.” The special point here is that God carefully warned the prophet Jeremiah: “whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.”
1.2/ The truth of Shiloh: It is a town in Mount Ephraim, about 20 miles north of Jerusalem. After the conquest of the land by Joshua, the Tabernacle was set up there (Jos 18:1). Eli the priest officiated in Shiloh. It was there that Hannah gave her young son Samuel to the Lord, and Samuel was trained by Eli the priest. God appeared to Samuel there, and Samuel became known to all in Israel.
“The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel. After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the battlefield. When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of God” (1 Sam 4:2-4).
In that battle with the Philistines, Israel lost the battle, and the troops suffered heavy losses. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are among the dead, and the ark of God has been captured” (1 Sam 4:17). After Israel regained the Ark, it was lodged at Kiriath-Yearim and never returned to Shiloh before King David moved the Ark to Jerusalem, his city.
1.3/ The truth was twisted by the audience: After Jeremiah declared all things which the Lord commanded him to speak, “the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying, “You must be put to death! Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord: ‘This house shall be like Shiloh,’ and ‘This city shall be desolate and deserted’?””
If we carefully examine what God commanded Jeremiah to speak and what the people accused him, we recognized these followings:
(1) They didn’t mention the first part “if ” of God’s oracle which is: “If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them.” They only paid attention to the last part, which is: “I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another.”
(2) Even when they repeated the result-clause, they also twisted the truth. God said, “I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another;” while they said: “’This house shall be like Shiloh,’ and ‘This city shall be desolate and deserted.’”
(3) Why didn’t they mention the first part of the oracle? It might be because they didn’t recognize their sins or want anyone to accuse them.
2/ Gospel: The truth was suffocated by prejudice and pride.
2.1/ Why didn’t Jesus’ fellow-countrymen recognize the truth?
(1) From the beginning, the truth was recognized by Jesus’ fellow-countrymen. These people recognized Jesus’ power and wisdom when they were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?” What they should truly find out is “from where” Jesus received such wisdom and power.
(2) The truth was put aside because of pride and prejudice: Instead of finding out “from where” in order to believe in Jesus, they let pride and prejudice blindfold them to recognize the truth. They were prideful because they didn’t want to accept Jesus is above them. They let prejudice influence them because they had a habit of insulting those who they knew and lived with. They said, “Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us?”
2.2/ The result of their opposition to the truth: Instead of were learning Jesus’ wisdom and witnessing his power, they committed sins against him. Jesus spoke the truth, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– We should be humble in searching for the truth. We should never twist the truth because of any reason; if we do, we shall receive terrible damages.
– We shouldn’t let any prejudice to cover the truth. Let be courageous to protect and to live for the truth because the truth sets us free.