10th Sunday of Year (c). June 9th 2013
A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)
B. Reflection & Dialogue: (1) Jesus, Paul and the Church; (2) The gentleness of Christ
First Reading (1 Kings 17:17-24). Look, your son is alive.
This reading is chosen for today’s liturgy because it goes well with the Gospel reading on Jesus’ raising to life of the widow’s son at Nain. In its original biblical setting it is part of a series of stories and episodes on Elijah, prophet and man of God, in good part on his defence of the religion of Yahweh, the God of Israel, against king Ahab and his pagan wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. She sought to have worship of the God of Israel replaced with the cult of her pagan god Baal. Elijah acts as God directs him. A drought is brought on the land of Israel and on Sidon. God commands Elijah to pass beyond Ahab’s territory to the pagan land of Sidon, where he has commanded a widow to feed him. Although short of food herself she does so, and is rewarded by God by food in abundance (1 Kings 17:1-16). This visit of Elijah, at God’s command, to the widow at Sidon was recalled by Jesus at Nazareth (Luke 4:25-26). Today’s reading follows immediately on that of the widow’s help to Elijah. The woman’s son had died. She addresses Elijah as “man of God”, and believes that her own sins have occasioned the death of her son. Elijah takes her son upstairs and stretched himself on the child three times. This, to some, might seem like sympathetic magic (there is a similar miracle, by the prophet Elisha, in Kings 4:32-37), but the central message of the passage is Elijah’s prayer to God and God’s reply by restoring the child to life. His mother now makes confession that he truly a man of God and the prophetic word in his mouth is truth itself.
Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 29[30]). I will praise you Lord, you have rescued me.
Second Reading (Galatians 1:11-19).
Last Sunday, as second reading, we began the semi-continuous reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, not read because of the celebration of Corpus Christi. The readings will continue for the next five Sundays. Paul had founded the mainly gentile, non-Jewish, church in Galatia in keeping with his own gospel that salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ without the requirement of circumcision or observance of the Jewish (Mosaic) law. Some time later he was informed that some Jewish-Christians, without any official mandate, had come and persuaded the Galatian Christians that circumcision and observance of the law of Moses were required for salvation. They also seem to have preached that Paul was not a real apostle, not having been one of the original group or seen the Lord after his resurrection, as the others had. In response to this crisis Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian church.
In this charming and informative autobiographical passage Paul stresses his divine apostolic mandate and gives precious information on his early years as a Christian. His message is not given by men; he is not an apostle of apostles, but confirmed as an apostle directly by God at his conversion, with a mission to preach to the pagans, non-Jews. He stresses that after his conversion he did not go (for direction) to the earlier apostles (Peter and the others) in Jerusalem, and when he later visits Cephas (Peter) it is not to be commissioned by him. His mission as apostle is directly from God, independent of the earlier apostles.
The autobiographical details in the account are very interesting. Jesus was crucified probably in 30 AD. The persecution, the stoning of Stephen and the conversion of Saul/Paul probably occurred 32/33 AD. Paul was in Damascus and Arabia 33-36, and visited Jerusalem and Cephas 36 AD. Paul says that after his conversion he went into Arabia. By this he means the Nabataean kingdom of Aretas, with Petra as capital. Paul probably went to Petra where he stayed two years. What he did there is not stated. Some think it was to preach his new faith in Christ to Jews there. It is equally probable that he went there for a period of reflection, to work out the theological consequences of his faith in the crucified and risen Saviour, forming the basis of his later theological system. In Jerusalem he met only Cephas (Peter) and James the brother of the Lord, who was not one of the Twelve, but would become head of the Jewish-Christian in Jerusalem.
The Gospel (Luke 7:11-17). Young man, I tell you to get up.
This is a straightforward account of the raising to life of a young man by Jesus, the only son of his widowed mother. It took place at a town called Nain, which is probably identical with the present-day Arab village of Nein, 14 km (8.7 miles) distant from Nazareth. Jesus could have well recalled the miracle worked by Elijah, given as the first reading today. He explicitly mentioned the biblical passage preceding it on the widow in his address at the synagogue at Nazareth.
B. Reflection & Dialogue: (1) Jesus, Paul and the Church; (2) The gentleness of Christ
(1) Jesus, Paul and the Church.
There is great emphasis today on the study of the “Jesus of History”, that is the person and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth in so far as this can be ascertained by purely historical methods, including the New Testament texts to be examined as historical, not faith, documents. The teaching and the sayings of Jesus as transmitted in the Gospels and other New Testament texts are minutely examined as to their genuineness: whether they can be accepted as definitely, probably or possibly from Jesus himself, or as creations of the early Christian mind or imagination. The same holds true for the narrative, or non-saying texts. Sometimes the impression might be given that what can not be accepted as such genuine sayings or narratives are of secondary importance for faith, or of no significance for Christian living, as being Church creations rather than from or about Jesus himself, as if Jesus’ message was adversely changed, if not quite corrupted, by the Church. As a learned dictum put it over a century ago: “Jesus preached the kingdom and what emerged was the Church”.
Today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians presents an opportunity to reflect a little on such questions. First there was Jesus, with his specially chosen group of Twelve, and other followers. They experienced the crucifixion, and the risen Lord appeared to them. He commissioned the Twelve to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. They were eyewitnesses to his public life from the baptism of John to his ascension – forty days after the resurrection in Luke’s reckoning. Then some three years later came Saul/Paul and his conversion to Christ. The risen Lord appeared to him, as really as he had to the Twelve, and commissioned him to preach the good news to the pagans. By virtue of this Saul/Paul was an apostle on the same level as the earlier ones.
What the emphasis on the “Jesus of history” approach might forget is that Jesus of Nazareth in his earthly life was but the beginning of God’s final revelation to humanity. The revelation of the great mystery included the death and resurrection of Christ, his ascension to God’s right hand, his position as Lord, the sending of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, and also the choice of Saul/Paul with his mission to the gentiles. The revelation of the mystery includes the special prophetic charism of insight into the person and teaching of Christ and the theological implications of this, leading early and later the Church to a fuller understanding of the mystery.
(2) The gentleness of Jesus speaks strongly over the centuries
On thus Sunday 9 June 2013, the tenth Sunday we return to the regular yearly cycle of Sunday readings. The gospel readings for this the third year (year C) of the three-year cycle are from the Gospel of Luke. The readings are semi-continuous, designed to have us familiarize ourselves with the beautiful gospel. These readings began on the second Sunday of ordinary time (on 20 January) and continued until the fifth Sunday, when we changed to the cycle of Lent and Easter (February 17 to May 19), followed by the fast of the Blessed Trinity and Corpus Christi. We now resume the regular yearly cycle. To appreciate today’s reading better it may be well to situate it in the overall context of Luke’s Gospel and the Sundays nearest to it. Since very early times Luke has been described as “the scribe of the gentleness of Christ”. He is anxious to stress Jesus’ love for sinners, to record his acts of forgiveness, and to contrast his tenderness for the lowly and the poor with his severity towards the proud and those who abuse their wealth. He also has an outreach towards those beyond the chosen people Israel. The section immediately preceding today’s reading narrates Jesus’ cure of the pagan, Gentile, centurion’s son at Capernaum, with lavish praise for his faith. Next Sunday’s reading will tell of Jesus’ very kind reception of a woman known to be a public sinner and his strong censure of his Jewish Pharisee host for his censorious attitude towards her. Her faith had saved her. Today’s reading is another example of Jesus sensibility and kindness towards a widow who had lost her only son. He encountered the funeral cortege and restored the widow’s son to life.