{"id":1015,"date":"2020-02-11T08:43:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T08:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2020-02-11T08:43:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T08:43:12","slug":"16-february-2020-a-sixth-sunday-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1015","title":{"rendered":"16 February 2020 (A) Sixth Sunday of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A. The bible<\/em> as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue:<\/em><\/strong> Can the Gospel call to perfection be lived?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Bible as\nGuide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings).\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 First Reading<\/em> (Ecclesiasticus 15:16-20). He never commanded anyone to be godless. <\/em>The\npassage 15:11-20 of this book speaks of the individuals\u2019 free will and their\nresponsibility with regard to sin. At the time this book was written (about 180\nBC) a matter being discussed in Israel\nwas the reason for the existence of sin. One theory held that it was due to the\nsin of the angels against God and the illicit union of angels with mortals.\nSin, then, would be a force in its own right, negating human responsibility.\nAnother view was that in each mortal there were two forces at work, a force for\ngood and a force for evil. Sirach gives a very clear answer, in keeping with\nthe teaching of Genesis on the creation of the first mortals and the general\nOld Testament teaching. God created mortals with a free will and they are\nresponsible for their actions. No human is in bondage to any hidden force. In\nthe verses immediately before the present passage the author says: \u201cDo not say,\n\u2018It is the Lord\u2019s doing that I fell away\u2019, for he does not do what he hates.\n… It was he who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the\npower of their own free choice\u201d, that is, with free will. From this there\nfollows the beginning of today\u2019s reading: \u201cIf you wish you can keep the\ncommandments, to behave faithfully is within your power\u201d. The reading ends in\nlike manner: \u201cHe (God) never commanded anyone to be godless; he has given no\none permission to sin\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial\nPsalm <\/em>(Psalm 118[119]).\nThey are happy who follow God\u2019s law.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second\nReading <\/em>(1\nCorinthians 2:6-10). God predestined\nwisdom to be for our glory before the ages began. <\/em>This reading is a\ncontinuation of that read last Sunday. In this reading Paul continues to\ncompare Christian wisdom to the human wisdom that did not understand God\u2019s\nsaving plan in Jesus Christ. He says that he does teach wisdom to those who\nhave reached maturity, that is, to those who have passed beyond the elementary\nunderstanding of the Christian message. This is a special wisdom which comes\nfrom God\u2019s free gift of faith, not a human philosophy, much less of \u201cthe\nmasters of this age\u201d, by which Paul probably means supernatural powers of evil\nand the earthly individuals or forces that were their agents, opposing Christ\nand the Gospel. The hidden wisdom in question is the mystery of God\u2019s salvation\nthat was hidden in God until it was revealed in the life, suffering, death and\nresurrection of Christ, and in the Church. Through the gift of faith all\nfollowers of Christ partake of this divine wisdom, even if the unbelieving\nworld around them does not understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGospel <\/em>(Matthew\n5:17-37). You have learned how it was\nsaid to our ancestors; but I say this to you.<\/em> This reading is a\ncontinuation of that read last Sunday. In this reading Jesus compares his own\nteaching and the way of life that should follow from it with that of the people\nof Israel\n(\u201cthose of ancient tines\u201d, \u201cour ancestors\u201d), or possibly with the law given to\nMoses. In a sense \u201cthe law and the prophets\u201d is a manner of describing this\nteaching and way of life. Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the\nprophets but to perfect, to complete them, to bring them to perfection, in this\nsense to fulfil all that the law and the prophets stood for. There was a\ncertain diversity of views and approach in the early church with regard to the\nplace of thr law of Moses in the Christian community. In so far the practice of\nit had to do with ethnic identity, it had no role in Paul\u2019s churches, drawn mainly\nfrom the non-Jewish community. Jewish Christians in Jerusalem\nand elsewhere in Palestine\ncontinued to practice it. Jesus was a practising Jew, but in this reading he\ngives a new understanding of the commandments believed to have been revealed to\nMoses on Sinai, and he does this with authority, implicitly placing himself above\nMoses. He brings out deeper implications of the commandments. To take some\nexamples: With regard to the commandment \u201cYou shall not kill (murder)\u201d \u2013 murder\nwas a most serious sin, even blasphemy since it destroyed the image of God in a\nhuman person. Jesus goes beyond the negative \u201cYou shall not\u201d to the positive,\nhighlighting the regard and esteem in which the human person should be held,\nand the actions deriving from this: forgiveness and reconciliation, absence of\nanger and insulting nicknames, such as Raca\n<\/em>(an obscure term of abuse), fool or renegade. (These terms of abuse must\nhave been considered very insulting in the original Aramaic setting, given the\nsevere punishment attached.) Jesus goes beyond adultery, to impure thoughts and\ndesires. He goes beyond the permission to divorce to a complete ban on divorce;\nbeyond the permission and practice of taking oaths to advice to avoid all\noaths, and lead a simple life where one\u2019s word should be sufficient guarantee.\nJesus\u2019 purpose in all this is made clear at the end of this comparison with\n\u201cthose of ancient times\u201d, which will be read in next Sunday\u2019s gospel: \u201cBe\nperfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue:<\/em><\/strong> Can the Gospel call to perfection be lived?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sirach\u2019s day the question was\nimplicitly put: \u201cCan we keep the commandments\u201d, and answered categorically in\nthe positive by that sage. Similar questions have been put with regard to the\nSermon on the Mount, and indeed with regard to many tenets of Catholic moral\nteaching. Indeed many have complained that the teaching of part of today\u2019s\nGospel reading, from the passage \u201cDo not kill\u201d down to \u201cDo not commit adultery.\nBut I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already\ncommitted adultery with her in his heart\u201d is impractical. In this context the\nwords of Dostoevsky\u2019s Grand Inquisitor are recalled, to the effect that \u201cJesus\njudged humanity too highly\u201d, for \u201cit was created weaker and lower than Christ\nthought\u201d. With regard to this we may note that this reading, apart from the ban\non divorce, is not a law code. Rather is it a presentation of the nature of the\nkingdom of God, of Christ\u2019s kingdom, and of the\nperfection to which those within it are called. The passage clearly states that\nwith Jesus a new age has come, and his followers are called to be witnesses to\nthis new age in their way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This\nview of the passage agrees with the message of today\u2019s second reading. The gift\nof faith gives the believer a new wisdom, an insight into God\u2019s plan, and in this,\nthe wisdom of which Paul speaks differs from human wisdom. Of course, this by\nno means that Paul, and the Church, do not highly regard human wisdom for the\nconduct of human affairs. As Paul write to the Philippians (4:8): \u201cFinally,\nbeloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever\nis pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence\nand if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things\u201d. One clear\nmessage of this second reading is that we should never forget that the Church\nis God\u2019s saving mystery. In dialogue with questions raised in our own day, it\nis good not to forget this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Another\nmatter discussed today is whether we can live in keeping with the Gospel\nmessage, or with the morality as taught by the Church. Christ was once\naddressed a similar question, to which he replied: \u201cFor God all things are\npossible\u201d. This, of course, is no full answer to today\u2019s question. There will\nbe fuller discussion of the matter in the months and years ahead. But in any\ndiscussion of the question in relation to the Gospel and the Church, the nature\nof the church as divine mystery, and the need of grace must be borne in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A. The bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings) B. Reflection & Dialogue: Can the Gospel call to perfection be lived?  The Bible as Guide in Life and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-readings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1016,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}