DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Thursday, September 25, 2014 25th Week in Ordinary Time - Psalter 1 (Green) Readings: Ecl 1:2-11; Ps 90:3-17; Lk 9:7-9 Response: In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge. Rosary: Luminous Mysteries Verse Highlight: Who is this I hear such reports about? SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Finbar Patron of Cork, Diocese of Cork Birth: 550 - Death: 620 He was the son of an artisan and a lady of the Irish royal court. Born in Connaught, Ireland, and baptized Lochan, he was educated at Kilmacahil, Kilkenny, where the monks named him Fionnbharr (white head) because of his light hair; he is also known as Bairre and Barr. He went on pilgrimage to Rome with some of the monks, visiting St. David in Wales on the way back. Supposedly, on another visit to Rome the Pope wanted to consecrate him a bishop but was deterred by a vision, notifying the pope that God had reserved that honor to Himself, and Finbar was consecrated from heaven and then returned to Ireland. At any rate, he may have preached in Scotland, definitely did in southern Ireland, lived as a hermit on a small island at Lough Eiroe, and then, on the river Lee, founded a monastery that developed into the city of Cork, of which he was the first bishop. His monastery became famous in southern Ireland and attracted numerous disciples. Many extravagant miracles are attributed to him, and supposedly, the sun did not set for two weeks after he died at Cloyne about the year 633. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile! 3 What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun? 4 A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever. 5 The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises. 6 Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind. 7 Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go. 8 All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing. 9 What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun! 10 Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us. 11 No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come -- they will not be remembered by their successors. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17 3 You bring human beings to the dust, by saying, Return, children of Adam. 4 A thousand years are to you like a yesterday which has passed, like a watch of the night. 5 You flood them with sleep -- in the morning they will be like growing grass: 6 in the morning it is blossoming and growing, by evening it is withered and dry. 12 Teach us to count up the days that are ours, and we shall come to the heart of wisdom. 13 Come back, Yahweh! How long must we wait? Take pity on your servants. 14 Each morning fill us with your faithful love, we shall sing and be happy all our days; 17 May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us, to confirm the work we have done! GOSPEL, Luke 9:7-9 7 Meanwhile Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was going on; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about? And he was anxious to see him. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Father, guide us, as you guide creation according to your law of love. May we love one another and come to perfection in the eternal life prepared for us. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 (All is Vanity) The book begins and ends with the same words: Vanity of vanitiesâ?¦ (v. 2; cf. 12:8). The phrase sums up wonderfully well the central idea of the and is the sacred authors assessment of the things of the world and the fruits of human endeavour, included among the latter being the acquisition of a superficial type of knowledge or wisdom that is clearly at odds with what we know from experience. The Hebrew root of the word translated as vanity means something like the vapour, air, and conveys the idea of something with no consistency to it, illusion, unreality. Some scholars link it to another root that means fleeting, evanescent, in the sense of something that man cannot grasp, and that is certainly an aspect of what the author is saying throughout the book. Vanity of vanities is the Hebrew form of the superlative, as in Song of Songs, On the Preacher, Qoheleth, see the Introduction, p. 257, above. When reading this book it is useful to bear in mind that the author is a Jewish teacher, very familiar with the Law and the wisdom tradition of Israel, which, in reaction to the arrival in Judea of various currents of Greek thought, was asking itself very seriously about the validity of its own answers about the value of human actions and the rewards or punishments that applied to them; could it be that the hedonistic ideas (which took no account of God) being put forward by Greek philosophers in the squares and streets â?? could these have some validity? The Preacher takes issue with both traditional wisdom and the Greeks. With a great deal of common sense, he questions all these teachings (which were widely accepted) and concludes that they are approaching the subject in the wrong way. It is not that he is skeptical about the human minds ability to know reality; what he objects to is the failure of seekers after wisdom to go to the root of the problem: The book of Ecclesiastes explains that exactly things are made of, and shows and makes clear to us the vanity of many of the things of the world, so that we might come to understand that the passing things of this life are not worth hungering for, and that we should not devote our attention to useless things or fix our desires on any creating thing (St. Basil, In principium Proverbiorum, 1). The first part of the book is devoted to showing that the type of wisdom man is bent on acquiring is of no use at all. To do this, it points out that if one looks around, one gets the impression that everything in the world forms part of one continuous cyclical movement in which one can never expect anything new to happen: things that seem new are not new at all (1:3-11). It goes on to argue, from experience, that the search for wisdom serves no purpose, for the wise mans lot remains unchanged, no matter what he learns (1:12-2:26). To compound his argument, the Preacher goes on to report what he has seen â?? fraud and loneliness . . . And from his observation of things around him, he draws a similar conclusion: this, too, is vanity and a waste of effort (3:1-4:16). That being so, in a series of counsels (5:1-12) he expounds the key lesson of the book: Do you fear God (5:7). In other words, if one does not take God into account, even riches bring only evils (5:13-6:7). That being the case, what advantages does wisdom offer (6:8-12)? In this way the teacher of Israel, using a rhetoric similar to that of his Hellenist adversaries, composes a diatribe to show that the reasonable thing to do is to put ones trust in God, for all the wisdom of this world is in vain. Both of these notions â?? true wisdom and the fear of God â?? will be perfected in the New Testament message. True wisdom is in Christ, in whom are had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:2-3). And the fear of God should be understood as love, not servile fear, because God is our Father. That conviction should govern what we do: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and he who fears is not perfected in love ( 1 Jn 4:18 ). In this splendid poem, which acts as a lead-in to his argument, the Preacher shows that if the elements of nature with their sometimes tedious movement change nothing in the established order of things, man likewise will change nothing in his life despite all his strivings (vv. 3-8). According to the Greek teachers, the entire cosmos was made up of four basic elements -- earth, fire, air and water. And the Preacher shows that, in fact, earth, sun, wind and waters always retain the same form despite all their movement. Noting, perhaps, the new ideas about the nature of the world that found their way into Judea at that time, the teacher of Israel takes pleasure in pointing out that things do not change, despite appearances to the contrary. The same holds for man: try as he may, he can find nothing new (vv. 8-11). ON THE GOSPEL: Luke 9:7-9 (Herods Opinion of Jesus) Today’s Gospel presents a reaction from Herod listening to the preaching of Jesus. Herod does not know how to place himself before Jesus He had killed John the Baptist and now he wants to see Jesus close to him. It is always threatening. Luke 9, 7-8 : Who is Jesus? The text begins with the exposition of the opinion of the people and of Herod on Jesus. Some associated Jesus to John the Baptist and to Elijah. Others identified him with a Prophet, that is, with a person who speaks in the name of God, who has the courage to denounce injustices of those in power and who knows how to give hope to the little ones. He is the Prophet announced in the Old Testament like a new Moses (Dt 18, 15). These are the same opinions that Jesus received from the disciples when he asked them: “Who do people say I am?” (Lk 9, 18 ). Persons tried to understand Jesus starting from things that they knew, thought and expected. They tried to set him against the background of the familiar criteria of the Old Testament with its prophecies and hopes, and of the Tradition of the Ancients with their laws. But these were insufficient criteria; Jesus could not enter into them, he was much bigger! Except for the Sadducees, all Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead, as revealed by God in Sacred Scripture (cf. Ezekiel 37:10; Daniel 12:2 and 2 Maccabees 7:9). It was also commonly believed by Jews at the time that Elijah or some other prophet had to appear again (Deuteronomy 19:15). This may have been why Herod began to think that perhaps John had come back to life (Matthew 14:1-2 and Mark 6:14-16), particularly since Jesus worked miracles and people thought this power was the prerogative of those who had risen from the dead. And yet he was aware that Christ was working miracles even before John died (cf. John 2:23); therefore, at first, he was disconcerted. Later, as the fame of Christs miracles spread, to have some sort of adequate explanation he decided, as the other Gospels tell us, that John must indeed have risen. Luke 9, 9: Herod wants to see Jesus. But Herod said: “John, I beheaded him; so who is this of whom I hear such things?” “And he was anxious to see him”. Herod, a superstitious man without scruples, recognizes that he was the murderer of John the Baptist. Now, he wants to see Jesus. Luke suggests thus that the threats begin to appear on the horizon of the preaching of Jesus. Herod had no fear to kill John. He will not be afraid to kill Jesus. On the other side, Jesus does no fear Herod. When they tell him that Herod wanted to take him to kill him, he sent someone to tell him: “You may go and give that fox this message: Look, today and tomorrow I drive out devils and heal, and on the third day I attain my end.” (Lk 13, 32). Herod has no power over Jesus. When at the hour of the passion, Pilate sends Jesus to be judged by Herod, Jesus does not respond anything (Lk 23, 9). Herod does not deserve a response. From father to son. Some times the three Herods, who lived during that time are confused, then the three appear in the New Testament with the same name: a) Herod, called the Great, governed over the whole of Palestine from 37 before Christ. He appears at the birth of Jesus (Mt 2, 1). He kills the new-born babies of Bethlehem (Mt 2, 16). b) Herod, called Antipas, governed in Galilee from the year 4 to 39 after Christ. He appears at the death of Jesus (Lk 23, 7). He killed John the Baptist (Mk 6, 14-29). c) Herod, called Agrippa, governed all over Palestine from the year 41 to 44 after Christ. He appears in the Acts of the Apostles (Ac 12, 1.20). He killed the Apostle James (Ac 12, 2). When Jesus was about four years old, King Herod, the one who killed the new-born babies of Bethlehem died (Mt 2, 16). His territory was divided among his sons, Archelaus, would govern Judea. He was less intelligent than his father, but more violent. When he assumed the power, approximately 3000 persons were massacred on the square of the Temple! The Gospel of Matthew says that Mary and Joseph, when they learnt that Archelaus had taken over the government of Galilee, were afraid and returned on the road and went to Nazareth, in Galilee, which was governed by another son of Herod, called Herod Antipas (Lk 3, 1). This Antipas governed over 40 years. During the thirty-three years of Jesus there was no change of government in Galilee. Herod, the Great, the father of Herod Antipas, had constructed the city of Caesarea Maritime, inaugurated in the year 15 before Christ. It was the new port to get out the products of the region. They had to compete with the large port of Tyron in the North and, thus, help to develop trade and business in Samaria and in Galilee. Because of this, from the time of Herod the Great, the agricultural production in Galilee began to orientate itself no longer according to the needs of the families, as before, but according to the demands of the market. This process of change in the economy continued during all the time of the government of Herod Antipas, another forty years, and found in him an efficient organizer. All these governors were ‘servants of power’. In fact, the one who commanded in Palestine, from the year 63 before Christ, was Rome, the Empire. FINAL PRAYERS: Each morning fill us with your faithful love, we shall sing and be happy all our days; let our joy be as long as the time that you afflicted us, the years when we experienced disaster. (Ps 90,14-15) It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 22:37:03 +0000
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