Words of the Word

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven...” (Matthew 5:20.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel Proclamation, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“Jesus speaks of righteousness here as virtue in its fullness. In speaking of Job, Jesus said, “He was a blameless man, righteous.” According to the same meaning of the word, Paul even called that person righteous for whom, as he said, no law is laid down: “For the law is not made for a righteous person.” One might find “righteous” in many other passages rendered as “virtuous in general.”

But I urge you to observe how grace has abounded under the new covenant. Jesus desires to have his prospective disciples considered as greater than the teachers under the old covenant. For by “scribes and Pharisees” here he meant the upright, not the lawbreakers. If they were not acting in a commendable fashion, he would not have spoken of them as righteous. Nor would he have compared the unreal to the real.

Note how Jesus also in this passage commends the old law. He does so by comparing it with the new, a comparison that implies that it is of the same family, so to speak. More or less, it does share many family resemblances. He does not find fault with the old law but in fact makes it more strict. Had it been evil, Jesus would not have accentuated it. Instead, he would have discarded it. If the law is so commendable, how is it not adequate to bring us into the kingdom? After the coming of Christ we are favored with a greater strength than law as such. Those who are adopted as children are bound to strive for greater things.” (The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 16.)

Collect

O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling place to You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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God’s word is an inexhaustible spring of life

Saint Ephrem the Syrian

Deacon and Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Commentary on the Diatessaron

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lord, who can comprehend even one of your words. We lose more of it than we grasp, like those who drink from a living spring. For God’s word offers different facets according to the capacity of the listener, and the Lord has portrayed his message in many colors, so that whoever gazes upon it can see in it what suits him. Within it he has buried manifold treasures, so that each of us might grow rich in seeking them out.

The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink. As the Apostle says: They ate spiritual food and they drank spiritual drink.

And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word. Instead he should feel that this is all that he was able to find of the wealth contained in it. Nor should he say that the word is weak and sterile or look down on it simply because this portion was all that he happened to find. But precisely because he could not capture it all he should give thanks for its riches.

Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For from it you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more; but if when your thirst is sated the spring is also dried up, then your victory would turn to your own harm.

Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Living the Kingdom of God and
the “greater righteousness”

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“I tell you, unless your righteousness (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē)
surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:20
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

Spoiler alert: Jesus’ words this Sunday are particularly challenging and stinging. While there are times in the Public Ministry that Jesus does offer words and teachings that comfort, His Sermon on the Mount continuously challenges disciples to deeper and deeper levels of grafting onto and into His Divine life and love - indeed, His very Person. There is no ‘arrival point’ in living Jesus’ Sermon. There is no finish line, no graduation, no reward and certainly no stopping point. Kingdom living, in the sacred Word proclaimed by Saint Paul, is a “straining forward” - “forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14). This also underscores that Kingdom living is not earned, not self-initiated nor a work that I do on my own. Living as prescribed by Jesus in His Sermon is a gracious response to the One Who loves infinitely and wants nothing more than that love to be received and responded to by a life marked by the “greater righteousness” or “greater justice.”

Initially, a life of “greater righteousness” may seem nebulous and ethereal. To that end, Jesus offers some very concrete and very challenging examples. This Sunday we listen to His approach to anger, adultery and oaths. Known as the Antitheses of the Sermon, Jesus provides them to offer his disciples a practical start to the demands of Kingdom living, but not a sum-total or all inclusive definition of “greater righteousness/justice.” In other words, even if one were to live the summons of all Antitheses perfectly, there would still be more to do in the way of response to living Jesus’ “greater righteousness/justice.” What is this righteousness/justice that believers are call to internalize and act upon? (Given that Lent begins this Wedneday, we will not listen to the remainder of Jesus’ Sermon at Sunday Mass. A great preparation to enter Lent’s time of intense Baptismal preparation and renewal is to prayerfully ponder the rest of chapter 5 as well as 6 and 7 from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.)

In present usage, we tend to view “righteousness” or “to do justice” as ‘being proved right,’ especially after some ordeal or confrontation. There may even be a hint of revenge or punishment added for good measure that attempts to put oneself in a good way as the person-in-the-right after a contentious argument or hurtful ‘discussion.’ Biblically though, righteousness and justice translate the Hebrew word tsedeq. Tsedeq is part of a family of Hebrew words formed from the Hebrew root word tsadaq. While conveying a legal aspect of ‘being in the clear,’ ‘being not-guilty,’ the root tsadaq fundamentally has to do with ‘right’ in the sense of ‘right-living,’ ‘right or proper order,’ ‘right, just, or proper relationship.’

Tsadaq, especially when it is applied to people throughout the Scriptures, refers often to living in proper relationship: proper relationship with God, with others, with the true self and all of creation. Used extensively by the Fathers of the Church, tsadaq (the Fathers used the Greek translation of tsadaq: dikaios, the same word that appears in the Greek New Testament) expressed the original harmony that radiated from creation. Original Justice is ‘original tsadaq’ declaring, that since all reality flowed from the hand of the Creator, all reality originally was in right-relationship with the Creator; all creation was tsadaq with the Creator. Far from a contemporary usage and understanding of ‘justice,’ biblical righteousness/justice is first and foremost about living life relationally as well as each relationship in its proper place. “Greater righteousness” does not calculate what must be done or avoided but only asks how may I love redemptively and sacrifically because of Jesus Who has loved each of us first.

Memorial of the brothers
Saint Cyril (Monk) and
Saint Methodius (Bishop)

“There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them." (Mark 8:9)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“From the lesser number of men [four thousand], less remains; from the greater number [five thousand], more is left over. Four thousand men—fewer certainly in number, but greater in faith. The one who is greater in faith eats more, and because he does, there is less left over! I wish that we, too, might eat more of the hardy bread of holy writ, so that there would be less left over for us to learn.” (Tractate on the Gospel of Mark, Homily 78)

Collect

O God, Who enlightened the Slavic peoples
through the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius,
grant that our hearts may grasp the words of Your teaching,
and perfect us as a people of one accord
in true faith and right confession.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Build up your Church and gather all into unity

Saints Cyril and Methodius

An excerpt from an Old Slavonic life of Constantine

Memorial of Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop

Constantine, already burdened by many hardships, became ill. At one point during his extended illness, he experienced a vision of God and began to sing this verse: “My spirit rejoiced and my heart exulted because they told me we shall go into the house of the Lord.”

Afterward he remained dressed in the vestments that were to be venerated later, and rejoiced for an entire day saying: “From now on, I am not the servant of the emperor or any man on earth, but of almighty God alone. Before, I was dead, now I am alive and I shall live for ever. Amen.”

The following day, he assumed the monastic habit and took the religious name Cyril. He lived the life of a monk for fifty days.

When the time came for him to set out from this world to the peace of his heavenly homeland, he prayed to God with his hands outstretched and his eyes filled with tears: “O Lord, my God, you have created the choirs of angels and spiritual powers; you have stretched forth the heavens and established the earth, creating all that exists from nothing. You hear those who obey your will and keep your commands in holy fear. Hear my prayer and protect your faithful people, for you have established me as their unsuitable and unworthy servant.

“Keep them free from harm and the worldly cunning of those who blaspheme you. Build up your Church and gather all into unity. Make your people known for the unity and profession of their faith. Inspire the hearts of your people with your word and your teaching. You called us to preach the Gospel of your Christ and to encourage them to lives and works pleasing to you.

“I now return to you, your people, your gift to me. Direct them with your powerful right hand, and protect them under the shadow of your wings. May all praise and glorify your name, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Once he had exchanged the gift of peace with everyone, he said: “Blessed be God, who did not hand us over to our invisible enemy, but freed us from his snare and delivered us from perdition.” He then fell asleep in the Lord at the age of forty-two.

The Patriarch commanded all those in Rome, both the Greeks and Romans, to gather for his funeral. They were to celebrate his funeral as if he had been a pope. This they did.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

“... and said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself. Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and will give you ten of the tribes.” (1 Kings 11:31.)

Saint Cyprian of Carthage comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“In the Gospel there is a proof of this mystery of unity, this inseparable bond of harmony, when the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not cut or rent at all. The garment is received whole and the coat taken into possession unspoiled and undivided by those who cast lots for Christ’s garment, asking who should put on Christ. Holy Scripture says of this, “But for the coat, because it was not sewn but woven from the top throughout, they said to each other: Let us not rend it but casts lots for it, whose it shall be.” He showed a unity that came from the top, that is, from heaven and the Father, a unity that could by no means be rent by one who received and possessed it. Its wholeness and unity remained solid and unbreakable forever. He who rends and divides the church cannot possess the garment of Christ. In contrast, when at Solomon’s death his kingdom and people were being rent, the prophet Ahijah, meeting King Jeroboam in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten scepters to you; but he shall have two scepters for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city that I have chosen, to put my name there.” When the twelve tribes of Israel were being rent, the prophet Ahijah rent his garment. But since Christ’s people cannot be rent, his coat, woven throughout as a single whole, was not rent by its owners. Undivided, conjoined, coherent, it proves the unbroken harmony of our people who have put on Christ. By the type and symbol of his garment he has manifested the unity of the church.” (The Unity of the Church, 7.)

Collect

Keep Your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely on the hope
of heavenly grace,
they may be defended always
by Your protection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect from optional Mass for today:

Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions,
38. For the Forgiveness of Sins

Be merciful to Your people, O Lord,
and absolve them from all sins,
so that what we deserve by our offenses
may be avoided by Your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Recognize the dignity of your nature

Pope Saint Leo the Great

Bishop of Rome and Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Sermon 4

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Our Lord Jesus Christ, born true man without ever ceasing to be true God, began in his person a new creation and by the manner of his birth gave man a spiritual origin. What mind can grasp this mystery, what tongue can fittingly recount this gift of love? Guilt becomes innocence, old becomes new, strangers are adopted and outsiders are made heirs. Rouse yourself, man, and recognize the dignity of your nature. Remember that you were made in God’s image; though corrupted in Adam, that image has been restored in Christ.

Use creatures as they should be used: the earth, the sea, the sky, the air, the springs and the rivers. Give praise and glory to their Creator for all that you find beautiful and wonderful in them. See with your bodily eyes the light that shines on earth, but embrace with your whole soul and all your affections the true light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. Speaking of this light the prophet said: Draw close to him and let his light shine upon you and your face will not blush with shame. If we are indeed the temple of God and if the Spirit of God lives in us, then what every believer has within himself is greater than what he admires in the skies.

Our words and exhortations are not intended to make you disdain God’s works or think there is anything contrary to your faith in creation, for the good God has himself made all things good. What we do ask is that you use reasonably and with moderation all the marvelous creatures which adorn this work; as the Apostle says: The things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.

For we are born in the present only to be reborn in the future. Our attachment, therefore, should not be to the transitory; instead, we must be intent upon the eternal. Let us think of how divine grace has transformed our earthly natures so that we may contemplate more closely our heavenly hope. We hear the Apostle say: You are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ your life appears, then you will also appear in glory with him, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

“From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.” (Mark 7:24)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“He withdrew, perhaps because the Pharisees were offended when they heard that “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” It is probable that he sought to avoid the Pharisees, who were offended at his teaching, while he was waiting for the time of his impending suffering — a time suitably and duly appointed. The Gentiles, those who dwell on the borders, can be saved if they believe. Think of it this way: each of us when he sins is living on the borders of Tyre or Sidon or of Pharaoh and Egypt. They are on the borders of those who are outside the inheritance of God.” (Commentary on Matthew, 11)

Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen!

Let Christ be formed in you

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Explanation of Paul’s
«Letter to the Galatians»

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

The Apostle says, Be like me, for though born a Jew, by reason of spiritual discernment I now consider carnal things of small importance. And he adds, For I am as you are, that is to say: For I, like you, am a man. Then he tactfully reminds them of his love so that they will not look on him as an enemy: Brothers, I beseech you, he says, you did me no wrong, as if to say, “Do not imagine that I want to wrong you.” And to have them imitate him as they would a parent, he addresses them as little children: My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you. Actually he is here speaking more in the person of Mother Church than his own. So too he says elsewhere: I was gentle among you like a nurse fondling her little ones.

Christ is formed in the believer by faith of the inner man, called to the freedom that grace bestows, meek and gentle, not boasting of nonexistent merits, but through grace making some beginning of merit. Hence he can be called “my least one” by him who said: Inasmuch as you did it to the least of my brethren you did it to me.

Christ is formed in him who receives Christ’s mold, who clings to him in spiritual love. By imitating him he becomes, as far as is possible to his condition, what Christ is. John says: He who remains in Christ should walk as he did.

Children are conceived in order to be formed in their mother’s womb, and when they have been so formed, mothers are in travail to give them birth. We can thus understand Paul’s words: With whom I am in labor until Christ be formed in you. By labor we understand his anxiety for those with whom he is in travail, that they be born unto Christ. And he is again in labor when he sees them in danger of being led astray. These anxieties, which can be likened to the pangs of childbirth, will continue until they come to full age in Christ, so as not to be moved by every wind of doctrine.

He is not therefore talking about the beginnings of faith by which they were born, but of strong and perfect faith when he says: With whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you. He also refers elsewhere in different words to his being in labor, when he says: There is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

“... since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (Mark 7:19)

In commenting upon this verse from today’s Gospel proclaimed at today’s Mass, Origen of Alexandria writes:

“When we read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy of the laws about food as clean and unclean (for the transgression of which we are censured by the legalists and by the Ebionites, who differ from them very little), we are not to think that the scope of the Scripture is found in any superficial understanding of them. For “whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on.” According to Mark, the Savior “declared all food clean,” so we are not defiled when we eat those things declared to be unclean by those who still desire to be in bondage to the letter of the law. But we are then defiled when our lips, which ought to be bound with good judgment as we search for correct balance and weight, speak recklessly and discuss matters we ought not.” (Commentary on Matthew, 11)

Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen!