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Friday – Twenty-ninth Week – OT2
Readings: Eph 4:1-6; Lk 12:54-59.
Reading 1 (Eph 4:1-6):
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Gospel (Lk 12:54-59):
Jesus said to the crowds,
“When you see a cloud rising in the west
you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does;
and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south
you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is.
You hypocrites!
You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate,
make an effort to settle the matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge,
and the judge hand you over to the constable,
and the constable throw you into prison.
I say to you, you will not be released
until you have paid the last penny.”
Written by: Fr. Tien M. Dinh, OP.
I. THEME: We need to be wise in order to live with others.
Many people complain that if there are hundred people, there shall be hundred opinions; in addition to that, there are many different temperaments, how can people adjust their differences and live in peace with each other’s?
Today readings help us to learn how to live with others and to overcome obstacles in our life. In the first reading, St. Paul listed out five necessary virtues which people need to have in order to live with others. In addition to that, people need to pay attention to what they have in common, not their differences in order to protect the unity among them. In the Gospel, Jesus paid a special attention to observe the phenomena which happen on the earth to draw out good experience for the present life and to prepare for the future life.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: How to protect unity?
After analyzed for the faithful to know the mystery of salvation and God’s love, St. Paul sincerely said to his faithful the following words: “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.” God calls all the faithful to live in unity with each other’s. In order to live up to God’s call, Paul prescribes for his faithful five necessary virtues which they must have and seven things they already had in common:
1.1/ Five important virtues people need to have to live in unity:
(1) Humility (tapeinofrosuvê): This is the word that doesn’t exist in Greek dictionary at that time; because according to them, humility is similar to weakness, having no value and needing no concern; it is only used for lowly servants. The Christian authors devised this noun (Cf. Acts 20:19; Eph 4:2; Phi 2:3; Col 2:18, 23; 3:12; 1 Pet 5:5) by using the adjective “tapeinon,” which means “low, base, poor;” and added the suffix “frosuvê,” which comes from the verb “fronevô” which means “let regard as.” This is one of the most important virtues and necessary for unity; and the excellent example of Christ must be an example for all the faithful to imitate (Phil 2:6-11). The “kenosis” which means to empty out of oneself, helps people to rely on God and to respect others as God’s children.
(2) Meekness or gentleness (prautês): Aristotle defines meekness is the virtue between the two extremes, lifelessness and anger. The gentle is the one who knows how to control his anger, to be angry at the proper time and to never get angry at the wrong time.
(3) Perseverance (makrothumía): The people who possess this virtue never give up because of difficulties and are patient until they get the desired result. This noun is used specically for the patience with people in order to win over others.
(4) Charity (agapê): This is another word which is only used by Christian authors. Charity is God’s love, originates from God and comes to human beings. When people have this theological virtue, they can love their enemies and sacrifice their life for others.
(5) Peace (eirếnê): can be defined as the right relationship between human and human or between human and God. To attain the true peace, people need to live according to the truth.
1.2/ What the faithful have in common: In order to bring unity between all Christian denominations, all the recent popes of the twenty-century emphasized on what are common between all Christians. They hope that if all denominations pay attention to what they have in common, they can gradually eliminate the differences. St. Paul listed seven great things which all the Christians had in common:
(1) One body: which is Christ’s body; and all the faithful are members of Christ’s body (1 Cor 12:12).
(2) One Spirit: who acts in Christ and in all the faithful (1 Cor 12:13).
(3) One hope which is to be lived for ever with God.
(4) One Lord is Jesus Christ; beside him, there is no other Lord.
(5) One faith: Every faithful believes in the same Christ, the Son of God.
(6) One baptism which is for the forgiveness of sins and the attainment of salvation.
(7) One God: Who is the Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
2/ Gospel: Let use our intellect to search for the truth.
2.1/ Knowledge about the weather: Our ancestors, though they did not have instruments used to predict weather as we have now, used their experience to predict weather and to teach future generation by simple maxims, easy to understand and to memorize. For example, “When you see a cloud comes from the east of Vietnam, you must run; but if you see it comes from the south, you can either continue to work or to play.” Their meanings are: If a cloud comes from the east of Vietnam, that is, from the sea of Nam Hai, then rain will certainly come; therefore, people must run as fast as possible to avoid rain. If a cloud comes from the south of Vietnam, it will not rain, people can continue what they are doing, either working or playing.
Jesus also used their ancestors’ experience when he said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, `A shower is coming’; and so, it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.” Their meanings are: If a dark cloud comes from the west of Palestine, that is, from the Mediterranean Sea, it is certainly that rain will come. If a wind comes from the south of Palestine, that is, from the Arabian desert, the weather will be hot.
2.2/ Knowledge about time: In the time period closed to the coming of Christ, almost every one of the Jews was looking for the Messiah, who will come to set them free from the foreign empire. According to prophets, God will give people signs to recognize when the Messiah comes; for example, according to the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isa 61:1). But when Jesus reminded them that he is the one who Isaiah foretold (Lk 4:21), they were still not believed in him. This is the reason why Jesus scolded them: “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”
2.3/ Use knowledge about psychology to prepare for one’s future life: To prepare to face God’s justice on the Judgment Day, Jesus illustrated a case which people are so familiar: “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you; you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper.” The meaning is that according to justice, we must render to people what belong to them. If we treat them unjust, we must compensate for them the sooner the better; if not, we will have to pay them back by the judge’s order and to endure possible jail time.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– To live in unity, we need to have five important virtues: humility, meekness, perseverance, charity and peace; at the same time, to develop what we have in common with each other.
– Human beings are animals with thinking; we need to use past experience to draw out good lesson for our present life; and know to use what is happening to store up good things for our future life.