Lectio Divina (465)
"Lectio divina is an authentic source of Christian spirituality recommended by our Rule. We therefore practice it every day, so that we may develop a deep and genuine love for it, and so that we may grow in the surpassing knowledge of Christ. In this way we shall put into practice the Apostle Paul’s commandment, which is mentioned in our Rule: “Let the sword of the spirit, the Word of God, live abundantly in your mouth and in your hearts; and whatever you must do, do it in the name of the Lord.”
Carmelite Constitutions (No. 82)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Just and merciful God,
You take pity even on sinners
and You continue with them
a dialogue of grace and hope.Help us too never to condemn,
never to give up on people,
but to be patient, understanding and forgiving,
together with You and Jesus Your Son
who lives with You and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever.
2) Gospel Reading - John 8: 1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to Him, He sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in the middle they said to Jesus, 'Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of this kind. What do You have to say?'
They asked Him this as a test, looking for an accusation to use against Him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with His finger. As they persisted with their question, He straightened up and said, 'Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.' Then He bent down and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until the last one had gone and Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained in the middle. Jesus again straightened up and said, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more.'
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel, we will meditate on the encounter of Jesus with the woman whom was going to be stoned. Because of His preaching and His way of acting Jesus disturbs and troubles the religious authority. Because of this, they tried, by all possible means, to accuse Him and to get rid of Him. Thus, they bring before Him a woman, caught committing adultery. Under the appearance of fidelity to the Law, they use the woman in order to have an argument against Jesus. Today also, under the appearance of fidelity to the Laws of the Church, many persons are marginalized. Divorcés/divorcées, prostitutes, sick with AIDS, single mothers, homosexuals, etc. Let us see how Jesus reacts:
• John 8:1-2: Jesus and the people. After the discussion on the origin of the Messiah, described at the end of chapter 7 (Jn 7:37-52), “They all went home” (Jn 7:53). Jesus did not have a house in Jerusalem. This is the reason why He went to the Mount of Olives. There was a garden there, where He usually spent the night in prayer (Jn 18:1). The following day, before dawn, before the rising of the sun, Jesus was again in the Temple. People came very close to Him to be able to listen to Him. They sat on the ground, around Jesus and He taught them. What did Jesus teach? It must have been very beautiful because people went there before sunrise to listen to Him!
• John 8:3-6ª: The Scribes prepare the ambush. Unexpectedly, the Scribes and Pharisees arrive, with a woman caught committing adultery. They make her stand in the middle. According to the law, the woman would have to be stoned (Lev 20: 20; Deut 22: 22,24). They ask, “What is your opinion, what do you have to say?” It was a trap. If Jesus had said, “Apply the Law”, they would have said, “He is not as good as He seems, because He has said to kill the poor woman!” If He had said, “Do not kill her”, they would have said, “He is not as good as He seems, because He does not even observe the law!” Under appearances of fidelity to God, they manipulate the law using the person of the woman in order to be able to accuse Jesus.
• John 8: 6b-8: Reaction of Jesus: He writes on the ground. It seemed to be a dead alley without an exit. But Jesus is not frightened, nor does He get nervous. Instead, calmly, He bends down and begins to write on the ground with His finger. His enemies are those who get nervous. They insist and they want Jesus to give His opinion. Then Jesus rises and says, “Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her!” Then bending down again He continued to write on the ground. Jesus does not discuss the law. But He changes the objective of the judgment. Instead of allowing them to place the law above the woman to condemn her, He asks them to examine themselves in the light of what the law demands from them. The symbolical action of writing on the ground clarifies everything. The word of the Law of God has its own consistency. A word written on the ground has no consistency. The rain and the wind carry it away. The forgiveness of God takes away sin identified and denounced by the law.
• John 8:9-11: Jesus and the woman. The gesture and response of Jesus make His enemies go away; they are conquered. The Pharisees and the Scribes go away full of shame, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. This is the opposite of what they expected to take place. The person condemned by the law was not the woman, but rather they who believed themselves to be faithful to the law. At the end, Jesus remained alone with the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus straightened up and said, “Woman, where are they who condemned you? Has no one condemned you?!” She replied: “No one, Sir!” And Jesus concludes, “Neither do I condemn you! Go away, and from this moment sin no more!”
• Jesus does not allow anyone to use the Law of God to condemn the brother or the sister when the person who condemns is himself/herself a sinner. This episode, better than any other teaching, reveals that Jesus is the light which makes truth shine. He opens up what exists in the secret of persons, in the intimate depth of each one of us. In the light of His word, those who seemed to be the defenders of the law reveal themselves being full of sin and they themselves recognize it, and they leave, beginning by the eldest. And the woman considered to be guilty and deserving of death, remains standing up before God, absolved, redeemed and with her dignity recovered (cf. Jn 3:19-21).
4) Personal questions
• Try to put yourself in the woman’s place: What were her feelings at that moment?
• What are the steps which our community can and should take to accept those who are excluded?
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
In grassy meadows He lets me lie.
By tranquil streams He leads me
to restore my spirit.
He guides me in paths of saving justice
as befits His name. (Ps 51:1-3)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Almighty God,
when people encountered Your Son,
He became a source of division:
He affected their lives
one way or another. May we accept Him fully
and empty ourselves to make room for Him
in our everyday life, even when it hurts.
Help us, that with Him
we may always seek and do Your will.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?" The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man." So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed." Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, "Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." Then each went to his own house.
3) Reflection
• In chapter 7, John confirms that there were diverse opinions and much confusion among the people regarding Jesus. The relatives thought something (Jn 7:2-5) and the people thought something different (Jn 7:12). Some said: “He is a prophet!” (Jn 7:40). Others said: “He leads the people astray!” (Jn 7:12). Some praised Him: “He is a good man!” (Jn 7:12). Others criticized Him: “He has not been educated, has not studied!” (Jn 7:15). Each one had his own arguments, taken from the Bible or from Tradition. But nobody remembered the Messiah Servant, announced by Isaiah (Is 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13; 53:12; 61:1-2). Today, too, there is much discussion on religion, and all take their arguments from the Bible. As in the past, it happens many times that little ones are deceived by the discourses of the great ones and, some times, even by the discourses of those who belong to the Church. It is important to understand the full picture, and not be led astray by personal interpretations or the person sitting next to us. It is a personal responsibility to seek and learn every day, while discerning the authenticity, history, and meaning of what we see, hear, or find.
• John 7:40-44: The confusion among the people. The reaction of the people is very diverse. Some say: He is the prophet. Others: He is the Messiah; the Christ. Others claim: He cannot be because the Messiah will come from Bethlehem and He comes from Galilee! These diverse ideas on the Messiah produce division and confrontation. There were some who wanted to take Him, to arrest Him, but they did not do it. Perhaps because they were afraid of the people (cf. Mt 14:2). There were many sources of authority at the time, both formal and informal, from the Roman occupation, to the Elders, the priests and religious leaders, and even to the people themselves who were able to demand and obtain Jesus’ execution despite there not being cause.
• John 7:45-49: The arguments of the authority. Previously, before the reaction of the people who were in favor of Jesus, the Pharisees had sent some guards to arrest Him (Jn 7:32). But the guards returned without Jesus. They had been greatly impressed in hearing people speak so well: “No one has ever spoken like this man!” The Pharisees reacted: “Have you also been led astray?” According to the Pharisees who said: “This rabble knows nothing about the Law” and allows itself to be deceived by Jesus. It is as if they said: “No, we the chief priests know things better and we do not allow ourselves to be led astray!” and they say that the people are “damned”! The religious authority of that time treated people with great contempt.
• John 7, 50-52: The defense of Jesus by Nicodemus. Before this stupid argument, the honesty of Nicodemus emerges and he raises his voice to defend Jesus: “But surely our Law does not allow us to pass judgment on anyone without first giving him a hearing and discovering what He is doing?” The reaction of the others is that Nicodemus is mocking them: “Nicodemus are you also from Galilee? Look at the Bible and you will see for yourself that prophets do not arise in Galilee!” They are sure! Holding the book of the past, they defend themselves against the future which arrives and disturbs them.
4) Personal questions
• Today, what are the diverse opinions that people have about Jesus? In your community, are there different opinions which cause confusion? What are they? Name them, describe them.
• There are people who accept only the new which agree with their own ideas and their past. There are others today that accept every new idea no matter how crazy. How do you discern authentic change and not be tossed about by every new idea?
5) Concluding Prayer
Have mercy on me, O God,
in Your faithful love,
in Your great tenderness wipe away my offenses;
wash me clean from my guilt,
purify me from my sin. (Ps 51:1-2)
Matthew 1:16.18-21.24a
Joseph, the Spouse of Mary, the Mother of Jesus
1. LECTIO
a) Opening prayer:
Spirit who moves over the water,
calm in us all discordance,
the agitated waves, the noise of the words,
the whirlwind of vanity,
and make the Word which recreates,
arise in silence.
Spirit who in a sigh you whisper
to our spirit the Name of the Father,
come and gather together all our desires,
make them grow in a beam of light
which will be a response to Your light,
the Word of the new Day.
Spirit of God, the sap of love
of the immense tree on which you graft us,
so that all our brothers and sisters
will seem to us as a gift
in the great Body in which
the Word of communion matures.
(Frère Pierre-Yves of Taizé)
b) Reading of the Gospel: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ. Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
c) A moment of silence:
so that the Word of God may enter into our hearts and enlighten our lives.
2. MEDITATIO
a) A key to the reading:
The passage of today’s Gospel is taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew which forms part of the section concerning the conception, birth and infancy of Jesus. The center of all this account is the person of Jesus around which are all the events and the persons mentioned. One must keep in mind that the Gospel reveals a theology of the history of Jesus, and so getting close to the Word of God we should get the message which is hidden under the veils of the account without losing ourselves, as Paul so wisely advises us “in foolish speculations”, avoiding “those genealogies and the quibbles and disputes about the Law, they are useless and futile” (Tt 3:9).
In fact, this text is connected to the genealogy of Jesus, which Matthew arranges with the intention of stressing the dynastic succession of Jesus, the Savior of his people (Mt 1:21). To Jesus are conferred all the rights inherited from the lineage of David, of “Joseph, son of David” (Mt 1:20; Lk 2:4-5) His legal father. For the Biblical and Hebrew world legal paternity was sufficient to confer all the rights of the lineage in question (cf.: the law of the levirate and of adoption (Dt 25:5ff). That is why from the beginning of the genealogy, Jesus is designed as “Christ the Son of David” (Mt 1:1) that is, the anointed one of the Lord Son of David, with whom all the promises of God to David His servant, are fulfilled (2 Sam 7:1-16; 2 Cr 7:18; 2 Cr 21:7; Ps 89:30). This is why Matthew adds to the account of the genealogy and of the conception of Jesus the prophecy of Isaiah: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet.: The young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel, which means God with us” (Mt 1:21-23 and Is 7:14).
Let us stop to say something, on the spiritual reality of adoption, we can refer to the fact that the elected people possess “the glory, the covenants, the legislation, the cult, the promises”, because “they are Israelites and possess the adoption of sons” (Rm 9:4). But we also, the new people of God in Christ receive the adoption of children because “when the completion of the time came God sent His Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as children” (Gal 4:4-5). This is the salvation which Jesus has brought to us. Christ “will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21) because He is the “God with us!” (Mt 1:23) who makes us adopted children of God.
Jesus is born from “Mary who was betrothed to Joseph” (Mt 1:18a)) who “was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:18b). Matthew does not give the account of the annunciation as Luke does (Lk 1:26-38), but structures the account from the point of view of the experience of Joseph the just man. The Bible reveals to us that God loves the just and many times chooses them for an important mission, protects them and does not join them to the impious (Gen 18:23ff). In the Old Testament we find many persons who are considered just. We think of Noah “a good man, an upright man among his contemporaries” (Gen 6:9). Or also Johoash who “did what Yahweh regards as right” (2 K 12:3).
A constant idea in the Bible is the “dream” as a privileged place where God makes His plans and designs known, and sometimes reveals the future. The dreams of Jacob at Bethel are well known (Gen 28:10ff) and Joseph his son, as also those of the cup-bearer and the chief baker imprisoned in Egypt with him (Gen 37:5ff; Gen 40:5ff) and the dreams of Pharaoh which revealed the future years of plenty and of famine and want (Gen 41:1ff).
“An Angel of the Lord“ appeared to Joseph (Mt 1:20) to reveal to him God’s design. In the Gospels of the infancy frequently the Angel of the Lord is mentioned as the heavenly messenger (Mt 1:20.24; 2:13.19; Lk 1:11; 2:9) and also on other occasions the angel appears to calm, to reveal the plans of God, to heal and to liberate from slavery (cf. Mt 28:2; Jn 5:4; Acts 5:19; 8:26; 12:7.23). Many are the references to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament where originally the angel represented the Lord himself who guided and protected His people being close to them (cf. Gen 16:7-16; 22:12; 24:7; Ex 3:3; 23:20; Tb 5:4).
b) Questions to orient the meditation and make it relevant:
● What is the most important thing to you in this passage? Why?
● In the key to the reading, consideration is given to some terms (adoption, angel, dream, just). What thoughts did these raise in your heart? What relevance can they have for your journey of spiritual maturation?
3. ORATIO
a) Psalm 92
It is good to give thanks to Yahweh,
to make music for Your name, Most High,
to proclaim Your faithful love at daybreak,
and Your constancy all through the night,
on the lyre, the ten-stringed lyre,
to the murmur of the harp.
You have brought me joy, Yahweh,
by Your deeds, at the work of Your hands I cry out,
'How great are Your works, Yahweh,
immensely deep Your thoughts!'
Stupid people cannot realize this,
fools do not grasp it.
The wicked may sprout like weeds,
and every evil-doer flourish,
but only to be eternally destroyed;
whereas You are supreme for ever, Yahweh.
Look how Your enemies perish,
how all evil-doers are scattered!
You give me the strength of the wild ox,
You anoint me with fresh oil;
I caught sight of the ambush against me,
overheard the plans of the wicked.
The upright will flourish like the palm tree,
will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.
Planted in the house of Yahweh,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
In old age they will still bear fruit,
will remain fresh and green,
to proclaim Yahweh's integrity;
my rock, in whom no fault can be found.
b) Moments for a prayerful silence
4. CONTEMPLATIO
The Christian contemplation of God’s dream, of the plan which God cherishes for the history of humanity does not produce alienation but keeps the consciences vigilant and active and stimulates us to face with courage and altruism the responsibilities which life gives us.
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God, we know,
perhaps more in theory than in practice,
that You are with us,
that You are our God and we Your people. Forgive us, Lord, when we fashion
our own gods made in our own image -
honor, power, prestige,
things to which we are attached and enslaved.
Remind us again and again
that You are our loyal God,
who made us in Your own indelible image
and who shows us Your perfect likeness
in Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 5:31-47
Jesus said to the Jews: "If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life. "I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
3) Reflection
• John, interpreter of Jesus. John is a good interpreter of the words of Jesus. A good interpreter must have two-fold fidelity: fidelity to the words of the one who speaks, and fidelity to the language of the one who listens. In John’s Gospel, the words of Jesus are not transmitted materially or literally; rather they are translated and transferred to the language of the people of the Christian communities of the first century in Asia Minor. For this reason, the reflections in the Gospel of John are not always easy to understand, because in them are mixed the words of God and the words of the Evangelist himself, who mirrors the language of faith of the communities of Asia Minor. The scholarly or scientific study of Jesus is not sufficient for this. It is also necessary that we have the lived experience of faith in the community. Today’s Gospel is a typical example of the spiritual and mystical depth of the Gospel of the Beloved Disciple.
• Reciprocal enlightenment between life and faith. Here it is well to repeat what John Cassian says regarding the discovery of the full and profound sense of the psalms: “Instructed by that which we ourselves feel, let us not consider the text as something which we have only heard, but rather like something which we have experienced and which we touch with our hands; not like a strange and unheard of story, but rather like something that we bring out to light from the deepest part of our heart, as if these were sentiments which form part of our being. Let us repeat them; it is not the reading (the study) what makes us penetrate into the sense or meaning of the words, but rather our own experience which has previously been acquired in the life of every day.” (Collationes X, 11). Life enlightens the text; the text enlightens life. If, at times, the text says nothing, it is not because of lack of study or because of lack of prayer, but simply because of lack of depth in one’s own life.
• John 31-32: The value of the witness of Jesus. The witness of Jesus is true because He does not promote or exalt Himself. “There is another witness who speaks on My behalf,” that is, the Father. And His witness is true and deserves to be believed.
• John 5:33-36: The value of the witness of John the Baptist and of the works of Jesus. John the Baptist also gave witness to Jesus and presents Him to the people as the One sent by God who has to come to this world (cf. Jn 1:29, 33-34; 3:28-34). For this reason, even if the witness of John the Baptist is very important, Jesus does not depend on him. He has a witness in His favor who is greater than the witness of John, that is, the works which the Father carries out through Him (Jn 14:10-11).
• John 5:37-38: The Father bears witness to Jesus. Previously, Jesus had said, “Whoever is from God listens to the words of God” (Jn 8:47). The Jews who accused Jesus did not have a mind open to God. And for this reason, they do not perceive the witness of the Father which reaches them through Jesus.
• John 5:39-41: Scripture itself gives testimony of Jesus. The Jews say that they have faith in the Scriptures, but, in reality, they do not understand Scripture, because the Scripture speaks of Jesus (cf. Jn 5:46; 12:16,41; 20:9).
• John 5:42-47: The Father does not judge but entrusts His judgment to the Son. The Jews say that they are faithful to the Scripture of Moses and, because of this, they condemn Jesus. In reality, Moses and the Scripture speak about Jesus and ask us to believe in Him.
4) Personal questions
• Life enlightens the text; the text enlightens life. How does one use this to gain an authentic understanding of each?
• The Jews of the time were following their hardened beliefs and not open to Jesus’ teaching. What is the proper balance between keeping old beliefs and accepting new ones? How does one discern what to keep and what to adopt, and how does this apply to Church doctrine and ritual?
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh, Your kingship is a kingship forever;
Your reign lasts from age to age.
Yahweh is trustworthy in all His words,
and upright in all His deeds.
Yahweh supports all who stumble,
lifts up those who are bowed down. (Ps 145:13-14)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Our God and Father,
You keep seeking us out
with love as passionate as a mother's love,
even when we have abandoned you. Give us hope and courage,
especially when we feel uncertain.
Reassure us that You want us to live
in the security of Your love
and that You stay with us
through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews: "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work." For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. "I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me."
3) Reflection
• The Gospel of John is different from the other three. It reveals a more profound dimension, which only faith is able to perceive, in the words and gestures of Jesus. The Fathers of the Church would say that the Gospel of John is “spiritual”; it reveals what the Spirit makes one discover in the words of Jesus (cf. Jn 16:12-13). A beautiful example of this spiritual dimension of the Gospel of John is the passage which we are going to meditate on today.
• John 5:17-18: Jesus explains the profound meaning of the healing of the paralytic. Criticized by the Jews for having cured on the sabbath, Jesus answers, “My Father still goes on working, and I am at work too!” The Jews taught that no work could be done on the sabbath, because even God had rested and had not worked on the seventh day of creation (Ex 20:8-11). Jesus affirms the contrary. He says that the Father has always worked even until now. And for this reason, Jesus also works, and even on the sabbath. He imitates His Father! For Jesus the work of creation is not finished as yet. God continues to work, unceasingly, day and night, holding up the universe and all of us. Jesus collaborates with the Father in continuing the work of creation in such a way that one day all may be able to enter into the eternal rest that has been promised. The reaction of the Jews was violent. They wanted to kill Him for two reasons: because He denied the sense of the sabbath and for saying He was equal to God.
• John 5:19-21: It is love which allows the creative action of God to shine and be visible. These verses reveal something of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Jesus, the Son, lives permanently attentive before the Father. What He sees the Father do, He does also. Jesus is the reflection of the Father. He is the face of the Father! This total attention of the Son to the Father makes it possible for the love of the Father to enter totally into the Son and through the Son, carry out His action in the world. The great concern of the Father is that of overcoming death and giving life. It is a way of continuing the creative work of the Father.
• John 5:22-23: The Father judges no one; He has entrusted all judgment to the Son. What is decisive in life is the way in which we place ourselves before the Creator, because it radically depends on Him. Now the Creator becomes present for us in Jesus. The plenitude of divinity dwells in Jesus (cf. Col 1:19). And therefore, according to the way in which we are before Jesus, we express our position before God, the Creator. What the Father wants is that we know Him and honor Him in the revelation which He makes of Himself in Jesus.
• John 5:24: The life of God in us through Jesus. God is life; He is the creating force. Wherever He is present, there is life. He becomes present in the Word of Jesus. The one who listens to the word of Jesus as a word that comes from God has already risen. He has already received the vivifying touch which leads Him beyond death. Jesus passed from death to life. The proof of this is in the healing of the paralytic.
• John 5:25-29: The resurrection is already taking place. All of us are the dead who still have not opened ourselves to the voice of Jesus, which comes from the Father. But “the hour will come” and it is now, in which the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who will listen, will live. With the Word of Jesus, which comes from the Father, the new creation begins; it is already on the way. The creative word of Jesus will reach all, even those who have already died. They will hear and will live.
• John 5:30: Jesus is the reflection of the Father. “By myself I can do nothing; I can judge only as I am told to judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek to do not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” This last statement is the summary of all that has been said before. This is the idea that the Johannine community had and diffused regarding Jesus.
4) Personal questions
• How do you allow the creative work of the Father in your life?
• “Those who have done good deeds will go to the resurrection of life”. Do you exercise your faith in deeds, or just in talk, or in just showing off for others?
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh is tenderness and pity,
slow to anger, full of faithful love.
Yahweh is generous to all;
His tenderness embraces all His creatures. (Ps 145:8-9)
Season of Lent ✝
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
You have quenched our thirst for life
with the water of baptism.
Keep turning the desert of our arid lives
into a paradise of joy and peace,
that we may bear fruits
of holiness, justice and love.
Lord, hear our prayer
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." He answered them, "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?" The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel describes Jesus curing the paralytic who had waited 38 years for someone to help him get to the water of the pool so as to be healed! Thirty-eight years! Faced with this total absence of solidarity, what does Jesus do? He transgresses the law of Saturday and cures the paralytic. Today, in poor countries, assistance to sick people is lacking; people experience the same lack of solidarity. They live in total abandonment, without help or solidarity from anyone.
• John 5:1-2: Jesus goes to Jerusalem. On the occasion of the Jewish festival, Jesus goes to Jerusalem. There, close to the Temple, was a pool with five porticos or corridors. At that time, worship in the Temple required much water because of the numerous animals which were sacrificed, especially during the great festivals. This is why near the Temple there were several cisterns where rain water was gathered. Some could contain over one thousand litres. Close by, because of the abundance of water, there was a public bathing resort, where crowds of sick people gathered waiting for help or to be healed. Archeology has shown that in the same precincts of the Temple, there was a place where the Scribes taught the Law to students. On one side, the teaching of the Law of God. On the other, the abandonment of the poor. The water purified the Temple, but it did not purify the people.
• John 5:3-4: The situation of the sick. These sick people were attracted by the water of the bathing resort. They said that an angel would disturb the water, and the first one who would enter after the angel disturbed the water, would be cured. In other words, the sick people were attracted by a false hope – a superstition. Healing was only for one person. Just like the lottery today. Only one person gets the prize! The majority pays and wins nothing. In this situation of total abandonment, in the public baths, Jesus meets sick people.
• John 5:5-9: Jesus cures a sick man on Saturday. Very close to the place where the observance of the Law was taught, a paralytic had been waiting for 38 years for someone who would help him to go down to the water to be cured. This fact reveals the total lack of solidarity and of acceptance of the excluded! Number 38 indicated the duration of a whole generation (Dt 2:14). It is a whole generation which does not experience solidarity or mercy. Religion at that time was not able to reveal the welcoming and merciful face of God. In the face of this dramatic situation Jesus transgresses the law of Saturday and takes care of the paralytic, saying, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around!” The man picked up his mat and started to walk around among the people.
• John 5:10-13: Discussion of the cured man with the Jews. Immediately after, some Jews arrived and criticized the man who was carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath. The man did not know who the one who had cured him was. He did not know Jesus. This means that Jesus, passing by that place where the poor and the sick were, saw that person; He noticed the dramatic situation in which the man found himself and cured him. He did not cure him to convert him, neither so that he would believe in God. He cured him because He wanted to help him. He wanted the man to experience love and solidarity through His help and loving acceptance.
• John 5:14-16: The man meets Jesus again. Going to the Temple, in the midst of the crowds, Jesus meets the same man and tells him, “Now, you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.” In that age, people thought and said, “Sickness is a punishment from God. God is with you!” Once the man is cured, he has to keep from sinning again, so that nothing worse will happen to him! But in his naiveté, the man went to tell the Jews that Jesus had cured him. The Jews began to ask Jesus why He did those things on the Sabbath. In tomorrow’s Gospel we have what follows.
4) Personal questions
• If I were the cured man, and told not to say anything, would I be silent or not?
• By proclaiming what had been done for him, despite his instruction, did he sin again?
• Have I ever had an experience similar to that of the paralytic: to remain for some time without any help? How is the situation regarding assistance to the sick in the place where you live? Do you see any signs of solidarity?
• Do I show the same compassion and help others without expecting a return and in a significant way every day?
5) Concluding Prayer
God is both refuge and strength for us,
a help always ready in trouble;
so we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil,
though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,
and its waters roar and seethe,
and the mountains totter as it heaves. (Ps 46:1-3)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God, almighty Father,
You want us not to turn to the past
to regret it and to mourn over it
but to hope in the future,
in the new earth and the new heaven.
Give us a firm faith
in Your Son Jesus Christ,
that notwithstanding the shortcomings of our time
we may have faith in the future,
which You want us to build up
with Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 4:43-54.
At that time Jesus left [Samaria for Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast. Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. While the man was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. Now this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.
3) Reflection
• Jesus had left Galilee and set forth toward Judah in order to arrive in Jerusalem on the occasion of the festival (Jn 4:45) and, passing through Samaria, He was returning again to Galilee (Jn 4:3-4). The observant Jews were forbidden to pass through Samaria, and they could not even speak with the Samaritans (Jn 4:9). When the Assyrians conquered Israel, the Jews there ended up scattered throughout the area and the Assyrians adopted the the God of Israel, Yahweh, and their practices. The Jews within Judah denied that any non-Hebrew had a right to worship Yahweh, or to worship outside of Jerusalem. Jesus did not care about these norms which prevented friendship and dialogue. He remained several days in Samaria and many people were converted (Jn 4:40). After that, He decided to return to Galilee.
• John 4:43-46ª: The return to Galilee. Even though Jesus knew that the people of Galilee had certain reservations about Him, He wished to return to His own home town. John refers to how badly Jesus was received in Nazareth of Galilee. Jesus himself had declared that “No prophet is honored in his own home town” (Lk 4:24). But now, given the evidence of what He had done in Jerusalem, the Galileans change their opinion and receive Him well. Jesus then returns to Cana where He had worked the first “sign” (Jn 2:11).
• John 4:46b-47: The petition of the court official. It is the case of a gentile. A short time before, in Samaria, Jesus had spoken with a Samaritan woman, a heretical person according to the Jews, to whom Jesus revealed His condition of Messiah (Jn 4:26). And now, in Galilee, He receives a gentile, the official of the king, who was seeking help for his sick son. Jesus does not limit Himself to help those of His race only, nor those of His own religion. He is ecumenical and receives all.
• John 4:48: Jesus’ answer to the court official. The official wanted Jesus to go with him to his house to cure his son. Jesus answered, “Unless you see signs and portents you will not believe!” A harsh and strange answer. Why does Jesus answer in this way? What was wrong with the the official’s request? What did Jesus want to accomplish through this response? Jesus wants to explain how our faith should be. The official would believe only if Jesus went with him to his house. He wanted to see Jesus curing. In general, this is the attitude that we all have. We are not aware of the deficiency of our faith. We often expect God to accomplish His work in the way we think it should be done.
• John 4:49-50: The official repeats his petition and Jesus repeats the response. In spite of Jesus’ answer, the man does not keep silence and repeats the same petition: “Sir, come down before my child dies!” Jesus continues to stand His ground. He does not respond to the petition and does not go with the man to his house and repeats the same response, but formulated in a different way: “Go home! Your son will live!” Both in the first as well as in the second response, Jesus asks for faith, much faith. He asks that the official believe that his son has already been cured. And the true miracle takes place! Without seeing any sign, nor any portent, the man believes in Jesus’ word and returns home. It could not have been easy. This is the true miracle of faith: to believe without any other guarantee, except the Word of Jesus. The ideal is to believe in the word of Jesus, even without seeing (cf. Jn 20:29).
• John 4:51-53: The result of faith in the word of Jesus. When the man was on the way home, his servants saw him and ran to meet him to tell him that his son had been cured, that he was alive. He asked them when the boy had begun to recover and discovered that it was exactly the time when Jesus had said, “Your son will live!” He was confirmed in his faith.
• John 4:54: A summary presented by John, the Evangelist. John ends by saying, “This new sign, the second, Jesus performed.” John prefers to speak of sign and not of miracle. The word sign connotes something which I see with my eyes, but only faith can make me discover its profound sense. Faith is like an X-Ray: it enables one to see what the naked eye cannot see.
4) Personal questions
• How do you live your faith? Do you have faith in God’s word or do you only believe in miracles and in perceptible experiences?
• Jesus accepts heretics and foreigners in a way that fosters conversion. How do I relate with people who are different from me? How do I foster their conversion through that relationship?
• These early cultures, like the Assyrians adopting the religion of the Hebrews over time, mixed their beliefs as they assimilated. That was probably one reason there was such resistance to outsiders among the Jews in Judah. This is true among cultures today. How should different cultures be welcomed within and into the Church, while preserving the Church’s teachings, doctrine, and culture?
5) Concluding Prayer
Make music for Yahweh,
all you who are faithful to Him,
praise His unforgettable holiness.
His anger lasts but a moment,
His favor throughout life;
In the evening come tears,
but with dawn cries of joy. (Ps 30:4-5)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
You yourself remind us through Your holy people
that all our religious practices,
even the eucharistic sacrifice,
are not worth anything
if we use them to bend You our way.
God, may we come to You
in humility and repentance,
ready to encounter You in love
and to turn toward You.
Accept us as Your sons and daughters,
together with Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 18:9-14
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel, Jesus, in order to teach us to pray, tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus has a different way of seeing things. He saw something positive in the tax collector, of whom everybody said, “He does not know how to pray!” Jesus, through prayer, lived so united to the Father that everything became an expression of prayer for Him.
• The way of presenting the parable is very didactic. Luke gives a brief introduction which serves as the key for reading. Then Jesus tells the parable and at the end Jesus Himself applies the parable to life.
• Luke 18:9: The introduction. The parable is introduced in this way: “He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else!” This statement is Luke’s. It refers to the time of Jesus, but it also refers to our own time. There are always people and groups of people who consider themselves upright and faithful and who despise others, considering them ignorant and unfaithful.
• Luke 18:10-13: The Parable. Two men went up to the Temple to pray: one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. According to popular opinion at that time, the tax collectors were not esteemed at all, and they could not address themselves to God because they were impure. In the parable, the Pharisee thanks God because he is better than others. His prayer is nothing other than a praise of himself, an exaltation of his good qualities and contempt for others and for the tax collector. The tax collector does not even raise his eyes, but he beats his breast and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He puts himself in his own place, where he stands before God.
• Luke 18:14: The application. If Jesus had allowed people to express their opinion and say which of the two went home justified, all would have answered, “the Pharisee!” At that time, this was the common opinion. Jesus thinks in a different way. For Him, the one who returns home justified, in a good relationship with God, is not the Pharisee, but rather the tax collector. Jesus turns all things upside down. It is certain that the religious authorities of that time were not pleased with Jesus’ application of the parable.
• Jesus prays. Luke informs us, especially, about Jesus’ prayer life. He presents Jesus in constant prayer. The following is a list of texts of Luke’s Gospel, in which Jesus appears in prayer: Lk 2:46-50; 3:21; 4:1-12; 4:16; 5:16; 6:12; 9:16,18,28; 10:21; 11:1; 22:32; 22:7-14; 22:40-46; 23:34; 23:46; 24:30). In reading Luke’s Gospel you can find other texts which speak about the prayer of Jesus. Jesus lived in contact with the Father. To do the will of the Father was the breathing of His life (Jn 5:19). Jesus prayed very much and insisted that people and His disciples do the same, because from union with God springs truth, and the person is able to discover and find self, in all reality and humility. In Jesus prayer was intimately bound to concrete facts of life and to the decisions which He had to make. In order to be faithful to the Father’s plan, He sought to remain alone with Him in order to listen to Him. Jesus prayed the psalms. He did it like any other pious Jew and He knew them by heart. Jesus even succeeded in composing His own psalm. It is the Our Father. His whole life was constant prayer: “By himself the Son can do nothing; He can do only what He sees the Father doing!” (Jn 5:19,30). To Him can be applied what the psalm says: “All I can do is pray!” (Ps 109:4).
4) Personal questions
• Looking into the mirror of this parable, am I like the Pharisee or like the tax collector?
• Do we “pray always” or do we turn everything we do into prayer? Which is more sincere?
• There are people who say that they do not know how to pray, but they speak with God all the time. Do you know any people like this?
• The Eastern Church has the “Jesus Prayer”, which would be based on this passage, and is used to “pray always”. Do I pray with the same intent: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.”
5) Concluding Prayer
Have mercy on me, O God, in Your faithful love,
in Your great tenderness wipe away my offenses;
wash me clean from my guilt,
purify me from my sin. (Ps 51:1-2)
1) Opening prayer
God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain of living it.
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to You,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel (Mk 12:28b-34), the scribes and the doctors of the Law want to know from Jesus which is the greatest commandment of all. Even today, many people want to know what is more important in religion. Some say that it is to be baptized. Others say that it is to go to church and to participate in the Sunday Mass. Others still say to love our neighbor and to struggle for a more just world! Others are concerned only with appearances and with tasks in the Church.
• Mark 12:28: The question of the doctor of the Law. Some time before the question of the scribe, the discussion was with the Sadducees concerning faith in the resurrection (Mk 12:23-27). The doctor who had participated in the debate was pleased with Jesus’ answer. He perceived in it His great intelligence and wished to take advantage of the occasion to ask a question to clarify something: “Which is the greatest commandment of all?” At that time, the Jews had many norms to regulate the observance of the Ten Commandments of the Law. Some said, “All these norms have the same value, because they all come from God. It is not up to us to introduce any distinction in the things of God.” Others said, “Some laws are more important than others, and for this reason, they oblige more!” The doctor wants to know what Jesus thinks.
• Mark 12:29-31: Jesus’ response. Jesus responds quoting a passage from the Bible which says that the greatest among the commandments is “to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength!” (Dt 6:4-5). At the time of Jesus, pious Jews recited this phrase three times a day: in the morning, at noon and in the evening. It was so well known among them just as the Our Father is among us. The Pharisees would even wear Tefillin (phylacteries) which were tiny scrolls with these words written on them. And Jesus adds, quoting the Bible again, “The second one is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). There is no other greater commandment than these two.” A brief but very profound response! It is the summary of everything that Jesus teaches on God and His life (Mt 7:12).
• Mark 12:32-33: The response of the doctor of the Law. The doctor agrees with Jesus and concludes, “Well said, to love your neighbor as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” That is, the commandment to love is more important than the commandments which concern the worship and sacrifices of the Temple. The Prophets of the Old Testament already had affirmed this (Hos 6:6; Ps 40:6-8; Ps 51:16-17). Today we would say that the practice of love is more important than novenas, promises, sermons and processions.
• Mark 12:34: The summary of the Kingdom. Jesus confirms the doctor’s conclusion and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!” In fact, the Kingdom of God consists in the union of two loves: love toward God and love toward neighbor. Because if God is Father/Mother, we are all brothers and sisters, and we should show this in practice, living in community. “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets!” (Mt 22:40). We, disciples, should keep this law in our mind, in our intelligence, in our heart, in our hands and feet, because one cannot reach God without giving oneself totally to one’s neighbor!
• Jesus had said to the doctor of the law, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”(Mk 12:34). The doctor was already close, but in order to be able to enter the Kingdom he still had to go a step forward. In the Old Testament the criterion of love toward neighbor was: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. In the New Testament Jesus extends the sense of love: “This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you! (Jn 15:12-23). Then the criterion will be “Love your neighbor as Jesus has loved us.” This is the sure path to being able to live together in a more just and fraternal way.
4) Personal questions
• What is the most important priority for you in exercising your religion?
• Are we (personally, our close community, our society) closer to the Kingdom of God nowadays or farther away from it than the doctor of the Law who was praised by Jesus?
5) Concluding Prayer
Among the gods there is none to compare with You,
for You are great and do marvellous deeds;
You, God, and none other. (Ps 86:8,10)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
many of us never had it so good
and so we have become smug and self-satisfied,
happy in our own little world.
God, may our ears remain open to Your word
and our hearts to You
and to our brothers and sisters.
Do not allow us to forget You,
or to place our trust in ourselves.
Make us restless for You
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 11:14-23
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons." Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel is that of Luke. We already meditated on the parallel text in Mark (Mk 3:22-27) during January.
• Luke 11:14-16: The diverse reactions before the expulsion of a devil. Jesus had expelled a devil which was mute. The expulsion produced two different reactions. On the one side, the crowd of people who remain astonished and surprised. The people accept Jesus and believe in Him. On the other side, those who do not accept Jesus and do not believe in Him. Among the latter, some said that Jesus cast out devils in the name of Beelzebul, the prince of devils, and others wanted a sign from heaven. Mark says that it was a question of the Scribes who had come from Jerusalem (Mk 3:22), who were not in agreement with the liberty of Jesus. They wanted to defend tradition against the message of Jesus.
• Luke 11:17-22: Jesus’ answer is divided into three parts:
1st part: Comparison with a divided kingdom. (11:17-18a) Jesus denounces the absurdity of the calumny of the Scribes. To say that he casts out devils with the help of the prince of devils means to deny the evidence. It is the same thing as saying that water is dry and that the sun is darkness. The doctors of Jerusalem slandered Him because they did not know how to explain the benefits which Jesus accomplished for the people. They were afraid to lose their position of leadership. They felt threatened in their authority before the people.
2nd part: through whom do your own sons drive them out?
(11:18b-20) Jesus provokes the accusers and asks, “But if it is through Beelzebul that I drive out devils, in whose name do your disciples drive them out? Let them respond and explain themselves! If I drive out the devil through the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares.”
3rd part: when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger one takes away all weapons. (11:21-22) Jesus compares the devil to a strong man. Nobody, except a stronger person, can rob the house of a strong man: Jesus is the strongest. This is why He succeeds in entering the house and in getting hold of the strong man. He succeeds in driving out the devils. Jesus seizes the strong man and now robs his house, that is, He liberates the people who were under the power of evil. The Prophet Isaiah had used the same comparison to describe the coming of the Messiah (Is 49:24-25). This is why Luke says that the expulsion of the devil is an obvious sign that the Kingdom of God has arrived.
• Luke 11:23: Anyone who is not with Me is against Me. Jesus ends His response with this sentence: “Anyone who is not with Me is against Me. And anyone who does not gather in with Me throws away.” On another occasion, also regarding the expulsion of a devil, the disciples prevented a man from using the name of Jesus to drive out the devil because he was not one of their group. Jesus answered, “You must not stop him: anyone who is not against you is for you!” (Lk 9:50). These two declarations seem to be contradictory, but they are not. The sentence in today’s Gospel is directed to the enemies who have a prejudice against Jesus: “Anyone who is not with Me is against Me. And anyone who does not gather in with Me throws away.” The prejudice and the lack of acceptance make dialogue impossible and break the union. The other sentence is addressed to the disciples who thought they had the monopoly on Jesus. “Anyone who is not against you is for you!” Many people who are not Christian practice love, goodness, justice, many times in a much better way than Christians. We must not exclude them. They are brothers and workers in the construction of the Kingdom. We Christians are not Jesus’ owners. On the contrary, Jesus is our Lord!
4) Personal questions
• To be “with Me” or “against Me” can become a complex question. At what point in belief or action would a person move from being “with” to “against” Jesus and his message?
• “Do not stop him, because anyone who is not against you is for you!” How does this apply to the various Christian interpretations of Jesus’ message today?
5) Concluding Prayer
Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh,
acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving,
acclaim Him with music. (Ps 95:1-2)
More...
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
Your prophets remind us
in season and out of season
of our responsibilities toward You
and toward the world of people.
When they disturb and upset us,
let it be a holy disturbance
that makes us restless, eager to do Your will
and to bring justice and love around us.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel (Mt 5:17-19) teaches how to observe the law of God in its complete fulfillment (Mt 5:17-19). Matthew writes in order to help the communities of converted Jews overcome the criticism of the brothers of their own race who accused them, saying, “You are unfaithful to the Law of Moses.” Jesus Himself had been accused of infidelity to the Law of God. Matthew has Jesus’ clarifying response to His accusers. Thus, Matthew sheds some light to help the communities solve their problems.
• Using images of daily life, with simple and direct words, Jesus had said that the mission of the community, its reason for being, is that of being salt and light! He had given some advice regarding each one of the two images. Then follow the brief verses of today’s Gospel.
• Matthew 5:17-18: Not one dot, nor one stroke is to disappear from the Law. There were several different tendencies in the first Christian communities. Some thought that it was not necessary to observe the laws of the Old Testament, because we are saved by faith in Jesus and not by the observance of the Law (Rm 3:21-26). Others accepted Jesus, the Messiah, but they did not accept the liberty of spirit with which some of the communities lived the message of Jesus. They thought that, being Jews, they had to continue to observe the laws of the Old Testament (Acts 15:1,5). But there were Christians who lived so fully in the freedom of the Spirit, who no longer looked at the life of Jesus of Nazareth, nor to the Old Testament that they even went so far as to say, “Anathema Jesus!” (1 Cor 12:3). Observing these tensions, Matthew tries to find some balance between both extremes. The community should be a place where the balance can be attained and lived. Jesus’ answer to those who criticized Him continued to be relevant for the communities: “I have not come to abolish the law, but to complete it!” The communities could not be against the Law, nor could they close themselves off in the observance of the Law. Like Jesus, they should advance and show in practice, the objective thst the Law wanted to attain in people’s lives, that is, in the perfect practice of love.
• Matthew 5:17-18: Not one dot or stroke will disappear from the Law. It is for those who wanted to get rid of the law altogether that Matthew recalls the other parable of Jesus: “Anyone who breaks even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” The great concern in Matthew’s Gospel is to show that the Old Testament, Jesus of Nazareth, and the life in the Spirit cannot be separated. The three of them form part of the same and unique plan of God and communicate to us the certainty of faith: The God of Abraham and of Sarah is present in the midst of the community by faith in Jesus of Nazareth who sends us His Spirit.
4) Personal questions
• How do I see and live God’s law: as a freedom to do anything I please, as an imposition which restricts me, or as a guide to grow in love?
• What can we do today for our brothers and sisters who consider all of this type of discussion as obsolete and not relevant?
• How does this view of the Law and the Commandments affect me? As a line which defines sin, as rules to avoid vice, or as a guide in attaining virtue?
5) Concluding Prayer
Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem,
Zion, praise your God.
For He gives strength to the bars of your gates,
He blesses your children within you. (Ps 145:12-13)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Just and holy God,
our loving Father,
You offered us Your hand in friendship
and You sent us Your Son Jesus
to go with us on the road
of obedience and loyalty. God, we often hurt this friendship;
we act as if we were not Your sons and daughters.
See the look of shame on our faces.
Forgive us, for we count on You.
Accept our thanks
for continuing to take us as we are
and loving us notwithstanding our sins.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 4:24-30
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel (Lk 4:24-30) forms part of a larger part (Lk 4:14-32). Jesus had presented His program in the synagogue of Nazareth, using a text from Isaiah which spoke about the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed (Is 61:1-2) and which mirrored the situation of the people of Galilee at the time of Jesus. In the name of God, Jesus takes a stand and defines His mission: to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to proclaim release to prisoners, to give back sight to the blind, to restore liberty to the oppressed. After finishing the reading, He updates the text and says, “Today this text is being fulfilled even while you are listening!” (Lk 4:21). All those present were astonished (Lk 4:16, 22b). But immediately after there was a reaction to discredit. The people in the synagogue were scandalized and did not want to know anything about Jesus. They said, “Is He not the son of Joseph?” (Lk 4:22b). Why were they scandalized? What is the reason for this [unexpected] reaction?
• Because Jesus quoted the text from Isaiah only to the part that says, “to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord,” and He omits the end of the sentence, which says, “to proclaim a day of vengeance for our God” (Is 61:2). The people of Nazareth remained surprised because Jesus omitted the phrase on vengeance. They wanted the Good News of the liberation of the oppressed to be an action of vengeance on the part of God against the oppressors. In this case the coming of the Kingdom would be only a superficial social change, and not a change or conversion of the system. Jesus does not accept this way of thinking. His experience of God the Father helps Him to understand better the significance of the prophecies. He takes away the vengeance. The people of Nazareth do not accept that proposal, and the authority of Jesus begins to diminish: “Is He not Joseph’s son?”
• Luke 4:24: No prophet is ever accepted in his own country. Jesus answers, “No prophet is ever accepted in his own country!” In fact, they did not accept the new image of God which Jesus communicated to them through this new and freer interpretation of Isaiah. The message of the God of Jesus went beyond the limits of the Jewish people and opened itself to accept the excluded and all humanity.
• Luke 4:25-27: Two stories of the Old Testament. In order to help the community to get beyond the scandal and to understand the universality of God, Jesus uses two well known stories of the Old Testament: one of Elijah and the other one of Elisha. Through these stories He criticized the people of Nazareth who were so closed up in themselves. Elijah was sent to the foreign widow of Zarephah (1 Kg 17:7-16). Elisha was sent to take care of Naaman of Syria (2 Kg 5:14). The people of Nazareth felt threatened by this. Paul makes a similar statement with similar results too (Acts 22:21)
• Luke 4:28-30: They intended to throw Him off the cliff, but He passed straight through the crowd and walked away. What Jesus said did not calm the people down. On the contrary! The use of these two biblical passages caused them to become more angry. The community of Nazareth reached the point of wanting to kill Jesus. And thus, at the moment in which He presented His plan to accept the excluded, Jesus Himself was excluded! But He remained calm! The anger of the others did not make Him change His mind. In this way, Luke indicates that it is difficult to overcome the mentality of privilege which is closed up in itself. And he showed that the polemic attitude of the gentiles had already existed in the time of Jesus. Jesus had the same difficulty which Luke had with the Hebrew community in his time.
4) Personal questions
• How do I carry on the gift of the Good News in the world today?
• Who are the excluded whom we should accept more warmly in our community?
• Does taking on poverty, oppression, or blindness (in all its forms) start on a personal level and spread to my community, or do I wait for the community to act before taking personal action?
5) Concluding Prayer
My whole being yearns
and pines for Yahweh's courts;
My heart and my body cry out
for joy to the living God. (Ps 84:2)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
Faithful Father, You are our God
of grace, mercy and forgiveness.
When mercy and pardon
sound paternalistic to modern ears, make us realize, Lord,
that You challenge us to face ourselves
and to become new people,
responsible for our destiny
and for the happiness of others.
Make us responsive to Your love
through Christ Jesus our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." So to them Jesus addressed this parable. "A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers."' So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.' But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, 'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.' He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'"
3) Reflection
• Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel includes the following information: The tax collectors and sinners were all crowding around to listen to Him and the Pharisees and Scribes complained saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Lk 15:1-3). Luke presents these three parables which are bound together by the same theme: the lost sheep (Lk 15:4-7), the lost drachma (Lk 15:8-10), the lost son (Lk 15:11-32). This last parable constitutes the theme of today’s Gospel.
• Luke 15:11-13: The younger son’s decision. A man had two sons. The younger one asks for the part of the estate which will be his. The father divides everything between the two and each receives his part. To receive the inheritance is not any merit of ours. It is a gratuitous gift. The inheritance of the gifts of God is distributed among all human beings, whether Jewish or Gentiles, whether Christians or non-Christians. All receive something of the inheritance of the Father, but not all take care of it in the same way. The younger son leaves and goes to a distant country and squanders his money on a life of debauchery, getting away from the father. At the time of Luke, the elder one represented the communities which came from Judaism, and the younger represented the gentile communities. Today, who would be the younger and who the elder?
• Luke 15:14-19: The disillusionment and the will to return to the father’s home. The need to find some food makes the young man lose his freedom, and he becomes a farm worker and takes care of the pigs. This was the condition of life of millions of slaves in the Roman Empire at the time of Luke. The situation in which he finds himself makes the young man remember how he was in his father’s home. Finally, he prepares the words which he will say to his Father: “I no longer deserve to be called your son! Treat me as one of your hired men!” The hired man executes the orders and fulfills the law of servants. The younger son wants to fulfill the law as the Pharisees and the Scribes of the time of Jesus wanted (Lk 15:1). The missionaries of the Pharisees accused the Gentiles who were converted to the God of Abraham (Mt 23:15). At the time of Luke, some Christians who converted from Judaism submitted themselves to the yoke of the Law (Gal 1:6-10).
• Luke 15:20-24: The joy of the father when he meets his younger son again. The parable says that the younger son was still a long way off from the house, but the father saw him, and ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him. The impression given by Jesus is that the Father remained all the time at the window to see if his son would appear around the corner. According to our human way of thinking and feeling, the joy of the father seems exaggerated. He does not even allow his son to finish his words. Nobody listens! The father does not want his son to be his slave. He wants him to be his son! This is the Good News which Jesus has brought to us! A new robe, new sandals, a ring on his finger, the calf, the feast! In the immense joy of the encounter, Jesus allows us to see how great the sadness of the father is because of the loss of his son. God was very sad and the people now become aware of this, seeing the immense joy of the father because of the encounter with his son! It is joy shared with all in the feast that he has prepared.
• Luke 15:25-28b: The reaction of the older son. The older son returns from his work in the fields and finds that there is a feast in the house. He refuses to enter. He wants to know what is happening. When he is told the reason for the feast, he is very angry and does not want to go in. He thinks that he is in the right. He does not like the feast and he does not understand the why of his father’s joy. This is a sign that he did not have great intimacy with the father, in spite of their having lived in the same house. In fact, if he had had this intimacy, he would have noticed the father’s sadness for the loss of his younger son and would have understood his joy when the son returned. Those who live in a state of anxiety about the observance of the Law of God run the risk of forgetting God himself! The young son, even being far away from home, seemed to know the father better than the older son who lived with him. The younger one had the courage to go back home to his father, while the older one no longer wants to enter the the father’s house. He does not realize that the father, without him, will lose his joy, because he, the older son, is son as much as the younger one!
• Luke 15:28a-30: The attitude of the father and the older son’s response. The Father goes out of the house and begs the older son to come inside. But the son answers, “All these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed any orders of yours, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property, he and his loose women, you kill the calf we had been fattening.” The older son also wants feast and joy, but only with his own friends, not with his brother and much less with his father. He does not even call his own brother “brother,” but rather “this son of yours,” as if he were no longer his brother. And he, the older brother, speaks about prostitutes. His malice makes him interpret his younger brother’s life in this way. How many times does the older brother misinterpret the life of the younger brother. How many times do we misinterpret the life and the practices of others! The attitude of the father is the contrary! He accepts the younger son but does not want to lose the older son. Both of them form part of the family. One cannot exclude the other!
• Luke 15:31-32: The father’s final response. Like the father who does not pay attention to the arguments of the younger son, in the same way he does not pay attention to those of the older son. He says, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours, but it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found!” Was the older son really aware that he was always with his father and found in his presence the reason for his joy? The father’s declaration - “All I have is yours!” also includes the younger son who has returned! The older brother does not have the right to make a distinction, and if he wants to be the father’s son, he has to accept the father as he is and not as he would like him to be! The parable does not say what was the older brother’s final response. It is up to the older son, who we are, to give it!
• The one who experiences the gratuitous and surprising eruption of the love of God in his life becomes joyful and wishes to communicate this joy to others. The salvific action of God is a source of joy: “Rejoice with me!” (Lk 15:6,9). And from this experience of God’s gratuitousness the sense of feast and joy emerges (Lk 15:32). At the end of the parable, the father asks them to be happy and to celebrate, to feast. The joy is threatened by the older son, who does not want to enter the house. He thinks he has the right to joy only with his own friends and does not want to share joy with all the members of the same human family. He represents those who consider themselves just and observant, and who think that they do not need any conversion, just like the keepers of the Law in Jesus’ time.
4) Personal questions
• What is the image of God that I have had since my childhood? Has it changed as I changed, and why?
• With which of the two sons do I identify with: the younger one or the older one? Why?
• This parable has references to communities (Pharisees/Gentiles) as well as to individuals. Do those references apply today?
5) Concluding Prayer
Bless Yahweh, my soul,
from the depths of my being, His holy name;
bless Yahweh, my soul,
never forget all His acts of kindness. (Ps 103:1-2)
Season of Lent
1) Opening prayer
God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make our life worth living.
Give us back the age-old realization,
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to You,
together with Christ Jesus, our Lord.
2) Gospel reading - Matthew 21:33-43,45-46
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.' They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" They answered him, AHe will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus said to them, ADid you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit." When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.
3) Reflection
• The text of today’s Gospel forms part of a greater whole which includes Mathew 21:23-40. The chief priests and the elders had asked Jesus by what authority He did those things (Mt 21:23). They considered themselves the custodians of everything and they did not want anybody to do things without their permission. Jesus’ answer is divided into three parts: 1) He, in turn, asks them a question because He wants to know, in their opinion, if John the Baptist was from heaven or from earth (Mt 21:24-27); 2) He then tells them the parable of the two sons (Mt 21:28-32); 3) He tells them the parable of the vineyard (Mt 21:33-46), which is today’s Gospel.
• Matthew 21:33-40: The parable of the vineyard. Jesus begins as follows: “Listen to another parable: There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, he fenced it around, dug a winepress in it and built a tower.” The parable is a beautiful summary of the history of Israel, taken from the prophet Isaiah (Is 5:1-7). Jesus addresses Himself to the chief priests, to the elders (Mt 21:23) and to the Pharisees (Mt 21:45) and He gives a response to the question which they addressed to Him about the origin of His authority (Mt 21:23). Through this parable, Jesus clarifies several things: (a) He reveals the origin of His authority: He is the Son, the heir; (b) He denounces the abuse of the authority of the tenants, that is of the priests and elders who were not concerned and did not take care of the people of God; (c) He defends the authority of the prophets, sent by God, but who were killed by the priests and the elders; (d) He unmasks the authority by which they manipulate the religion and kill the Son, because they do not want to lose the source of income which they have accumulated for themselves throughout the centuries.
• Matthew 21:41: The sentence which they give to themselves. At the end of the parable Jesus asks: “Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They are not aware that the parable was speaking precisely of them. This is why, with the response that they give, they decree their own condemnation: “The chief priests and the elders of the people answered: ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time’.” Several times Jesus uses this same method. He leads the person to tell the truth about himself, without knowing that he is condemning himself. For example, in the case of the Pharisee who condemns the young woman, considering her a sinner (Luke 7:42-43), and in the case of the parable of the two sons (Mt 21:28-32).
• Matthew 21:42-46: The sentence given by themselves was confirmed by their behavior. From the clarification given by Jesus, the chief priests, the elders and the Pharisees understand that the parable is about them, but they do not convert. Rather, they keep to their own plan to kill Jesus. They will reject “the cornerstone.” But they do not have the courage to do it openly because they fear the reaction of the people.
• The diverse groups which held the power at the time of Jesus. In today’s Gospel three groups appear, which, at that time, governed: the priests, the elders and the Pharisees. Then, some brief information on the power which each of these groups and others had is given:
a) The priests: They were the ones in charge of the worship in the Temple. The people paid the Temple a tithe and other taxes and offerings. The High Priest occupied a very important place in the life of the nation, especially after the exile. He was chosen and appointed from among the three or four aristocratic families who possessed more power and riches.
b) The elders or the Chief Priests of the People: They were the local leaders in the different villages of the city. Their origin came from the heads of the ancient tribes.
c) The Sadducees: they were the lay aristocratic elite of society who wanted to maintain a priestly caste. Many of them were rich merchants or landlords. From the religious point of view they were liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives. They did not accept the changes supported by the Pharisees, for example, faith in the resurrection and the existence of angels.
d) The Pharisees: Pharisee means “separated.” They believed in the Oral Law handed down from Moses and that through the perfect observance of the Law of purity, people would succeed in being pure, separated and holy as the Law and Tradition demanded! Because of the exemplary witness of their life according to the norms of the time, their moral authority was widespread in the villages of Galilee.
e) Scribe or doctor of the Law: They were the ones in charge of teaching. They dedicated their life to the study of the Law of God and taught people what to do to observe all the Law of God. Not all the Scribes belonged to the same line. Some were united with the Pharisees, others with the Sadducees.
4) Personal questions
• Have you sometimes felt that you were unduly controlled or misunderstood? What was your reaction? Was it the same as that of Jesus?
• If Jesus returned today and told us the same parable, would it be as relevant? What would the reaction be from society and on a personal level?
5) Concluding prayer
As far as heaven is above the earth,
so strong is the faithful love of the Lord for those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far from us does He put our faults. (Ps 103:11-12)
