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Scripture In
Depth
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time A
February 9, 2014
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Reading I: Isaiah 58:7-10
This passage
is more familiar as a Lenten reading. The verses immediately
preceding this excerpt pose the question of true fasting. Today’s
verses give the answer: True fasting is sharing our bread with
the hungry.
But the preceding question is omitted today, since
we are not in the Lenten fast. The effect is to throw the emphasis
on the consequence of sharing one’s bread: “Then shall
your light break forth like the dawn ... then shall your
light rise in the darkness.”
This makes the reading appropriate for the post-Epiphany season,
which is concerned not only with the epiphany of God in Christ
but also with the Christian life as an epiphany of God’s love
for us.
The theme of the Christian as a light in the world’s
darkness is then taken up in the refrain of the responsorial
psalm and in the Gospel. |
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Responsorial Psalm 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 112 sets
out the characteristics of the just or righteous person in
the style of the wisdom literature. It is to be noted that
the refrain, though based on verse 4a of the psalm. does
not say quite the same thing.
When the psalm itself speaks
of light, this means the reward the upright person receives
for well-doing—a state of general well-being as contrasted
with “darkness,” that is, affliction.
The refrain,
however, distinguishes between the just and the upright person in a way the psalm does not,
and makes the former a light—that is, a source of well-being—for the latter.
When analyzed, the thought of the refrain is really far from
clear, though its intention is obvious, namely, to relate the
psalm to the Old Testament reading and the gospel, both of
which speak of the righteous as a source of light.
One may
hope, in the interests of clarity and of faithfulness to the
text of Scripture, that this refrain will be reconsidered when
the Lectionary comes up for review.
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Reading II: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
It has often been
thought that Paul changed his preaching at Corinth because
of his failure at Athens (Acts 17). In preaching to the Stoics
and Epicureans there, he had tried to use sophisticated philosophical
arguments, replete with literary allusions. So when he got
to Corinth, he abandoned this style and concentrated on the
message of the cross.
This is unlikely because in writing
up Paul’s visit to Athens, the author of Acts probably followed
the custom of ancient historians, composing the Areopagus
speech himself and putting it on Paul’s lips. It is a sample
of the Christian apologetic customary at the time Acts was
written.
Accordingly, we must suppose that at Athens, as at Corinth,
Paul followed his usual practice of preaching Christ crucified.
At Athens his message was refused because the cross was a stumbling
block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.
Intellectuals did not, and still do not, want to hear about
human sin and divine salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ—that
is both the folly and the stumbling block.
The Corinthians’ present behavior—their cliquishness and their pride in wisdom—is wholly inconsistent with
the gospel of the cross as they had received it through Paul’s preaching. The cross of Christ
was the Umwertung aller Werte, the denial of all human wisdom
and its accompanying pride.
The way the Corinthians are now
behaving, one would think that Paul had not preached the message
of the cross but lofty and plausible words of human wisdom,
like the wandering preachers and charlatans so common in the
Hellenistic world, Paul has only his weak words, yet God made
these words the vehicle of his “Spirit and power.”
And,
after all, they did bring the Corinthians to faith. |
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Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
The band of disciples, the nucleus of the future Church, is
described under three metaphors: salt, a city on a hill, and
a light in the world. The passage concludes with the well-known
exhortation especially familiar to Anglicans as the first of
Cranmer’s invariable offertory sentences and so constantly
heard Sunday by Sunday for three centuries: “Let your
light shine before men.”
The Sermon on the Mount does not say that the disciples are
to become the salt, that they are to become like a city on
a hill or make themselves a light amid the darkness of the
world.
They are all those things, and that because Jesus has called
them and they have responded. Rather, they are expected to
manifest what they are: “Let your light so shine before
men.”
How is this done? By good works.
Our text does not
specify what these good works are. It is more concerned to
insist that good works are not the meritorious deeds of the
disciples themselves, for the world that sees them does not
praise the disciples for them, but the heavenly Father.
The
good works of the disciples point away from themselves to the
grace of God through which they were wrought. |
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Copyright © 2006
by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville,
Minnesota. All rights reserved. Used by
permission from The Liturgical Press,
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321
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Preaching the Lectionary:
The Word of God for the Church Today
Reginald H. Fuller and Daniel Westberg. Liturgical Press. 2006 (Third Edition), pp. 125-127.
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Thank
you to Liturgical Press who makes
this page possible
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For
more information about the 3rd edition (2006) of
Preaching
the Lectionary click picture
above. |
Art by Martin Erspamer, O.S.B.
from Religious Clip Art for the
Liturgical Year (A, B, and
C).
Used by permission of Liturgy
Training Publications. This art may
be reproduced only by parishes who
purchase the collection in book or
CD-ROM form. For more information go
to: http://www.ltp.org/
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