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Scripture In Depth
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time C
July 14, 2013
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Reading I: Deuteronomy 30:10-14
This is part of Moses’ farewell discourse in
Deuteronomy. In fact, it is a liturgical sermon urging
Israel to renew the covenant, and was probably composed
in the time of exile.
It suggests the concept of the law no longer written on
tablets of stone but engraved on the heart, thus
presaging the development of the wisdom tradition after
the Exile.
Paul picked up this passage (v.14) and applied it to the
gospel and the righteousness that comes by faith (Romans 10:5-8).
As C. H. Dodd pointed out, Paul is not really doing
violence to Deuteronomy, which is less legalistic than,
say, Leviticus: “The deuteronomic code . . . bases
righteousness on the love of God, to which we should be
provoked by his grace towards his people.”
[C. H. Dodd, The Epistle to the Romans (New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1932) 165.]
Hence the first reading prepares us for the Gospel of
the day, which features the double command of
love.
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Responsorial Psalm: 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37
Like so many other psalms, this one begins as the
prayer of an individual in distress and ends on a note
of assurance. Psalms such as this reflect the pattern of
Christ’s death-resurrection and the Christian
experience of sin and justification.
Psalm 69 makes a fitting response to Deuteronomy
30:10-14, interpreted in the light of
Romans 10:5-8.
OR
Responsorial Psalm: 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Psalm 19 falls into two distinct halves, perhaps
indicating the combination of two different psalms. The
first half is a nature psalm and praises God for his
gift of sunlight. The second half, beginning with verse
(8), praises God for the gift of the light of his
law.
Today’s selection is taken from the second half
and (during the Easter Vigil) follows appropriately upon
the reading from Baruch (3:9-15,
32 - 4:4, see Reading VI from the Easter
Vigil), since wisdom and law (Torah) are closely akin,
if not identical.
The refrain highlights the truth that the (Lord’s
words are Spirit and) life. The word of God is his
self-communication.
This self-communication was present in creation, in
Israel’s Torah, but above all in the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Word-made-flesh,
as the Johannine prologue puts it, thereby meaning the
whole history of Jesus.
The words of (Spirit and) life are therefore spoken
supremely in the death and resurrection of Christ. This
is God’s final word to humankind, his final act of
self-communication, which is the source of
“everlasting life,” authentic
existence.
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Reading II: Luke 10:25-37
This passage is a Christological hymn. The first part
speaks of Christ in terms of the later Jewish concept of
wisdomthe image of God personified as the agent of
creation and preservation. The second part moves to the
theme of redemption, but is patterned on the first
part.
As preexistent wisdom, Christ was the first-born of
creation; as the risen One, he is the first-born of the
dead. As the agent of creation he created the cosmic
powers; in his exaltation he is their victor and the
head of his body, the Church.
The divine wisdom becomes incarnate in Jesus, and the
incarnation reaches its climax in the cross, the source
of reconciliation and peace.
It was a bold step for the New Testament to identify
Christ with the preexistent “Wisdom.” What
led it to take this step? It was the conviction that the
God who had revealed himself and acted in Jesus Christ
was the same God who had created the world.
Redemption is not redemption out of the world, but the
restoration of the created world when it had fallen into
sin. The implications of this for the Christian attitude
toward the world are far-reaching.
Christianity says a preliminary “yes” to the
world as God’s creation, and a preliminary
“no” to it as subject to the powers of evil.
But it says an ultimate “yes” to the world,
because that world has been reconciled through the blood
of the cross.
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Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
The double commandment of love has come down in two
different forms. In the Marcan/Matthean form, it is
Jesus who gives the command in response to a question;
in the Lucan form it is elicited from the
“lawyer” in response to Jesus’
counter-question.
The content of the commandment is not original to Jesus,
for it is a combination of texts from Deuteronomy and
Leviticus. Nor is it certain that the combination is
original to him, for it is also found in the Testament
of the Twelve Patriarchs (although some scholars think
that there it is a Christian interpolation).
It is arguable, however, that in Christian tradition the
double commandment stems from Jesus and that
Luke’s form of it is a secondary adaptation to the
dramatic exigencies of his pericope.
Even if Jesus was not the first to combine love of God
and love of neighbor, he understood that combination
with a unique and radical seriousness (G. Bornkamm).
There can be no love of God that does not express itself
in love of neighbor.
Conversely, there is no authentic love of neighbor that
does not spring from love of God, for otherwise it is a
refined, subtle form of self-love.
In Luke’s dramatic construction, Jesus’
acceptance of the lawyer’s reply leads to a
further question on his part. He wanted to
“justify himself,” to get the whole thing
straight. He asks, “And who is my neighbor?”
The dramatic exchange is the springboard for the parable
of the Good Samaritan.
But the parable does not really answer the
lawyer’s question. It ends by reversing it:
“Which of the three proved neighbor to him
who fell among the robbers?”
It is right here that the point of the parable lies.
“You shall love your neighbor” does not mean
that you may love some people but not others; rather, it
means: be a neighbor to another, not just indulging in
general sentiments of benevolence, but doing concrete
acts for the person in concrete need.
“Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is
simply their claim on ourselves. We have literally no time
to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our
neighbor or not. We must get into action and obey; we must
behave like a neighbor to him” (D. Bonhoeffer).
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Copyright © 1984 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. The Liturgical Press. 1984 (Revised
Edition),
pp. 485-486, 68-69.
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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.
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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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