{"id":877,"date":"2019-09-05T15:17:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T15:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=877"},"modified":"2019-09-05T15:17:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T15:17:42","slug":"8-september-2019-c-twenty-third-sunday-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=877","title":{"rendered":"8 September 2019 (C) Twenty-third Sunday of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

B.\nReflection & Dialogue: <\/strong>Wakeup\ncall for ethnic and culture Catholics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

First Reading <\/em>(Wisdom 9:13-18).Who can divine the will of God? <\/em>The\nauthor of the Book of Wisdom (full title: The Wisdom of Solomon), composed in\nEgypt about 30 BC, writes as if its author was King Solomon, a person\nproverbial for wisdom. The first part of the book (chapters 1-9) is all about\nwisdom; the second part (chapters 10-19) is on sacred history from Adam to the\nExodus from Egypt\nas guided by divine wisdom. The Bible (1 Kings 3:3-9) presents Solomon as\nhaving prayed to God for wisdom at the beginning of his reign (\u201ca wise and\nunderstanding mind\u201d), a request granted by God. The first part of the book of\nwisdom finishes with \u201cSolomon\u2019s\u201d lengthy prayer for wisdom (already prayed for\nin Wisdom 7:7-22). Wisdom is personified, not a person, but a personification\nof the functions of the Lord God of Israel. It is presented as having\nbeen with God at creation, of knowing God\u2019s mind and plans. Participation in\nthis wisdom is necessary for humans if their lives are to be guided according\nto God\u2019s will. Without this wisdom human reasonings and intentions are uncertain.\nDue to an influence from Greek philosophy the author says that \u201ca perishable\nbody presses down the soul\u201d. This is not a dualism, as if matter were evil, but\nsimply that our human deliberations are weak, due to the body and its concerns.\n\u201cSolomon\u201d notes that it is hard enough for mortals to understand earthly\nmatters, leading to the question as to who can discover heavenly things.\nKnowledge of heavenly matters comes from God\u2019s gift of Wisdom, said to be sent\nby God\u2019s holy spirit from above. Here \u201cspirit\u201d means more or less the same\nthing as Wisdom, a personification of divine functions and operations. Wisdom,\nthis divine presence in history, has revealed God\u2019s will to mortals and guided\ntheir paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial Psalm <\/em>(Psalm 89[90]). O Lord, you have been our refuge from one\ngeneration to the next.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Reading <\/em>(Philemon). Have him back, not as a slave any more, but as a dear brother.<\/em> This\nis the shortest of Paul\u2019s letters, with a mere twenty-five verses. It was\nwritten by Paul from prison, probably in Ephesus,\nalthough some believe it was Caesarea or Rome.\nIt was addressed to Philemon, a well-to-do Christian, probably at Colossae. The background\nof this letter is as follows: Philemon had a slave called Onesimus who ran away\nfrom him, and reached Paul in prison. He possibly had heard his master Philemon\nspeak highly of Paul\u2019s kindness. He became friendly with Paul and was converted\nby him from paganism to Christ, and helped Paul in preaching the gospel. Although\nPaul could well do with Onesimus\u2019s services, he realized that it was a very serious\noffence for a slave to run away, something for which he could be severely\npunished by his master. Paul decides to have Onesimus return to his master\nPhilemon, now as a Christian. Paul directs this letter to Philemon, making the\npoint that all three of them, Paul, Philemon and Onesimus, are now brothers in\nthe Lord, thus equal in God\u2019s sight. Paul pleads with Philemon to be kind to\nhis dear friend Onesimus, now also a brother in the Lord to Philemon. He would\nlike to have Onesimus back with him again, but only with the good will of his\nmaster Philemon. While careful to write as a friend, not with his apostolic\nauthority, Paul ends his brief letter with the words (not in today\u2019s reading):\n\u201cConfident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do\neven more than I say\u201d. What seems implied here is not merely that Philemon will\nreceive Onesimus kindly, and not punish him as a runaway, as he was entitled\nto, but that he will actually grant his slave Onesimus his freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The implications of this brief\nletter are immense, as indicative of Paul\u2019s real attitude to slavery. Slavery\nwas a central to Greek and Roman society. Paul does not speak directly against\nit in his letters. He can say that in Christ there is neither slave of freeman,\nthat in Christ all are equal, including slaves and their masters, in Christ slaves\nare freed persons in the Lord. While this, and Paul\u2019s attitude in the letter to\nPhilemon, should have given a basis for the abolition of slavery, the practice\ncontinued for centuries in Christian countries and by Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel<\/em> (Luke 14:25-31). None\nof you can be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.<\/em> Today\u2019s\nGospel reading is a very important one on the requirement of discipleship, of\nbelief in Jesus and of a life in keeping with the demands of this belief. The\nreading, however, can be somewhat off-putting by reason of its language, and\nbefore getting to the central message itself a few words on the history behind\nthe composition of our gospels may be in order. Jesus in good part preached the\nGospel in Galilee, in the Aramaic language. After\nthe resurrection the early Church was centred on Jerusalem, where Aramaic and Greek were current.\nAt a given time a collection of Jesus\u2019 sayings was made in Greek, with an\nAramaic background. Both Matthew and Luke used this document, Luke often\nreproducing the original text where Matthew might rephrase if clarity so\nrequired. Thus in Hebrew, and presumably Aramaic, the word \u201chate\u201d might in\ncertain situations means simply \u201clove less\u201d, \u201cdislike\u201d (Genesis 29:31,3;\nDeuteronomy 21:15-15), as in Romans (9:13): \u201cJacob I loved, Esau I hated\u201d.\nThus, when Jesus speaks of \u201chating father and mother\u201d he means preferring them\nto himself. The original readers would have understood. Matthew (10:37) avoided\nthe problem by rephrasing as: \u201cAnyone who loves father or mother (son or\ndaughter) more than me is not worthy of me\u201d. Another point calling for comment\nis the word \u201cdisciple\u201d. Jesus had disciples of different kinds: literal\nfollowers, who gave up everything to live an itinerant life with him; within\nthis group there were the Twelve Apostles. But there was also a larger group of\ndisciples who believed in him, and supported him and his mission, who were not\nliterally followers. We may also recall (with Luke 18:20 and other texts) that\nJesus held family values and respect for parents in high regard, while also\nmaking clear that his coming and call would cause division within families.We can now return to the Gospel\nreading. Jesus stresses the need of total allegiance to himself, to his person.\nAs already noted by Luke (9:23, read on the Twelfth Sunday), one\u2019s cross (made\nby Gospel demands) must be carried. The gift of being called to follow Christ\nis pure grace, not merited (called from highways and byways; Luke 14:21-24),\nbut it makes its demands. Christians should weigh up in advance what real\nservice of the Gospel implies, illustrated by the examples of the unfinished\ntower, and the army preparing for war. Giving up all possessions was required\nfor disciples following Jesus literally; for other disciples, readiness to do\nthis if required; for all detachment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue<\/strong>: Wakeup\ncall for ethnic and culture Catholics<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Church grows in numbers in a country\nor community, when it experiences no opposition or persecution, and may even be\nrespected in all its works, its members may become nominal, ethnic or cultural\nCatholics with little contact with the living Christ or the Church itself\nthrough regular Church attendance and practice of the sacraments. Such contact\nmay be reduced to baptism, marriage and burial, the second of these becoming\nless frequent in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And\nyet all these would identify themselves as Catholics, and register themselves\nas such in census returns. Certain writers would refer to those as ethnic or\ncultural Catholics. Since faith is a divine gift from God, it is not for anyone\nto judge whether these have the faith or not. Only God can judge this. However,\nsince all believers in Christ are chosen to be witnesses to him to the world,\nto be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, such passive, ethnic or\ncultural Christianity is far removed from what Jesus calls his followers to be.\nWe live in a world which is ever becoming more secular, with a tendency, if not\na plan, to push religious beliefs to the margins, with little or no place in\npublic life. Religious conviction can be seen as a danger to, if not\nincompatible with, public office. In certain political circles it can be\nunacceptable to profess oneself as first a Christian, or Catholic, and then as\na member of one\u2019s country or one\u2019s political party, as if there were an\nincompatibility, which there is not. Christ would certainly add today \u201ccountry\nor political party\u201d to the matters not to be preferred to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            How\nthe priority of the allegiance to Christ and present day realities are to be\nreconciled is a matter for individual and collective conscience. Allegiance to\nChrist must be fostered by devotion to the person of Christ and the Church.\nLessons can still be drawn from the examples of the tower and the preparation\nfor war of the Gospel reading. The person of Christ must be central. Devotion\nto his message requires quiet reflection on how to practice it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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