First Reading Commentary
The prophet Isaiah calls us to conversion, to
seek the Lord wholeheartedly for He is loving and merciful. The first part of this Reading focuses on the
initial movement into conversion; that is to say, the momentous decision to
accept God’s gracious invitation. The
second part kind of draws us into the Bosom of our Lord to console us with the
incomprehensible truth that what follows will not be a bed of roses; for it is
one thing to hear that God’s thoughts and ways are not like ours, but for most
of humanity it is a lifelong journey to come to terms with and fully accept
God’s ways because to the logical and rational mind God’s ways often do not
appear to be all that logical or well-ordered.
To prayerfully enter into the Old Testament, in
many ways, is to enter into the interior life of Jesus. We hear these words at every Mass after the
proclamation of the Readings: “The Word of the Lord.” It is not the word of Isaiah or another
prophet; they are instruments of the thoughts, ways and words which flow from
the Heart of God, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Thus, in this particular Reading we enter into the interior life of
Jesus which focuses on our search for Him.
In His own prayer, in a mysterious Communion of
Love with His Father, He contemplates how He may be found, how He can always be
near for us because His love for us is immeasurable.
Recall in the Gospel when Jesus was twelve years
of age and was missing for three days, and when Saint Joseph and our Savior’s
Blessed Mother found Him, He was in the temple sitting with the doctors of the
Mosaic Law, listening to them and asking questions. Jesus’ explanation to His parents was in the
form of a question: “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s
business?” (Luke 2:49). Interesting that the words “I must be” seems
a bit casual when comparing it to the Greek text which translates as “it is
binding”. Thus for Jesus it is binding
for Him that He is near and may be found, as we search for Him. And that Gospel passage tells us where He may
be found: in the temple. For Catholics,
Jesus can always be found in our parishes, our church buildings, our chapels –
He waits for us in the Tabernacle, or in the Monstrance. And while there, certainly we desire to dump
our extra baggage onto Jesus, but we should also try to enter into a sacred
silence, listening to Him, because His ways and His thoughts are far above
ours.
We can also find in the words “Seek the Lord
while He may be found,” Saint Mark’s account of Simon finding Jesus in a deserted
place at prayer, and Simon telling our Lord: “Everyone is looking for You” (Mark 1:37). Upon hearing this Jesus went into the
synagogues of the villages to teach His people.
Again, Jesus is waiting for us in our house of worship. It’s
as if He was found at prayer to teach us to do the same, and then He teaches
from His Father’s house as if to show us that there He waits for us.
Of course, our Lord has no limits, thus there
are no limits to how He may be found. He
is always close to us by His indwelling.
Recall the words of Saint Paul: “God’s temple is holy, and that temple
you are” (1 Corinthians 3:17). And Jesus Himself teaches us of our very
serious responsibility in that His house shall be called a house of prayer, and
sin makes it a den of thieves (cf. Mark
11:17).
Second Reading Commentary
What Saint Paul describes here is a life totally
committed to Jesus Christ. And because
of his submissiveness to the Lord he is resigned to either a life remaining in
the flesh or death.
Fascinating that Saint Paul writes about Christ
being “magnified” in his body. Our
Blessed Mother proclaimed that her soul “magnifies” the Lord (cf. Luke 1:46). In both verses of the Greek text the
transliterated word “megaluno” is
used which means “to make great” or “magnify”.
It’s kind of fun to speculate how our Blessed Mother and Saint Paul both
ended up expressing a way of showing God’s greatness through their individual
selves by using the same word. Did our
Blessed Mother and Saint Paul have a discussion; or perhaps Saint Luke and
Saint Paul, as Luke’s Gospel is sometimes referred to as the Marian Gospel? There are a handful of possibilities as to
how this came about besides the obvious: the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.
To live for Jesus is to have a life that is
“worthy of the Gospel of Christ” which is fruitful not only for oneself but
also in giving witness to others. To die
is to enter into eternal life and receive our Redeemer’s reward.
Interestingly, while we strive to live a Gospel
life in this world, to do so is to die to this world; while the end of natural
life delivers us into eternal life.
Dying to the world, however, doesn’t mean turning one’s back on it. As disciples of Jesus Christ we know that the
ways of the world are at odds with God; thus, a disciple does his/her part to
transform the world by allowing the grace of God to work through His instrument
of grace.
We could magnify our Lord in our soul and body
in the most literal sense: to enlarge.
That is, by faithfully living the Gospel life, Jesus in us becomes more
visible to others; or as Saint John the Baptist said: “He must increase, but I
must decrease” (John 3:30).
Gospel Commentary
There’s something not quite right with any brand
of Christianity that thinks we’re competing against each other; for Jesus
showed us when He was tempted by the devil in the desert that our battle is not
with flesh and blood. We are the body of
Christ helping each other towards that goal which eye has not seen and ear has
not heard. No one who sprains an ankle
hopes it never will heal because that would take something away from their
quality of life; and nothing hurts the quality of the spiritual life more than
sin. Thus, ideally, we are connected as
a body of people helping each other and praying for each other.
The times of nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock
and five o’clock is a more comprehensible, modern way of expressing the ancient
text versions which translate respectively as the third, sixth, ninth and
eleventh hours. This was the ancient world’s
way of telling time in which six o’clock in the morning was considered the
first hour.
These terms as they apply to this Gospel,
however, really have very little to do with the time of day. It has more to do with a time in life in
relation to conversion. A conversion or
reversion is a common experience in the life of a high percentage of us. Very few who are raised to love the Lord
avoid going through some sort of a rebellious or indifferent period in their
life. And really, if our goal is to have
a special, closer union with our Lord, then conversion is a reality for all of
us and a daily process.
If it were possible to somehow peak through the
windows of heaven it might be a shock to see who’s actually there – and who’s
not. But for Christians, anyone’s
conversion is cause for rejoicing regardless of what time in life the
conversion occurred.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reads: “The
economy of law and grace turns men’s hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates them into desire for the
Sovereign God; it instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit Who
satisfies man’s heart” (CCC 2541). One does not have more of a claim to heaven
because they’ve been faithful to Christ since their childhood years as opposed
to one who finally obeyed the call in their twilight years. Truth be told, no one has a claim to heaven;
it is God’s gift to us. The accusation
of injustice or unfairness is also delineated in the parable of the prodigal
son (cf. Luke 15:11-32).
The final verse: “The last will be first, and
the first will be last” paradoxically implies a violent contrast but that
meaning should be expunged from it. The
proper implication is that the first and the last which translate as long and
brief service to our Lord actually blend and harmonize in the Eyes of God
because He is indifferent to that distinction because there are no limits to
His mercy.
