εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”
“The LORD said to Moses,
"Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”
"Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”
Leviticus 19:1-2
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)
On the heels of Jesus’ challenging and demanding “greater righteousness” as the basis for Kingdom living, He continues with the summons, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Such a call sparks many questions not the least of which is, ‘What does it mean to be perfect as far as Jesus is concerned?’ Questions like this are good because they remind us of the necessity of having to sit in silence with the Holy Spirit and be drawn into the Word’s life through prayerful pondering and studying, a dimension of which is the graced connections throughout all of the biblical Books. While biblical studies have progressed and profited tremendously through various apps and software packages, it is also help to pay attention to the arrangement of Sacred Scripture the Church has provided for Sunday proclamation, especially the complementarity of the First Reading (normally Old Testament in Ordinary Time) and the Gospel. This Sunday’s Word universally calling all to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” has a foundation in Book of Leviticus.
Since the later part of the nineteenth century, scholars have generally referred to Leviticus chapters 17 through 26 as the “Code of Holiness.” Holy as used here in Leviticus 19:1-2, translates the Hebrew word קָדֹשׁ (qadosh). Early in the history of the word’s usage, qadosh expressed ‘difference.’ It did not speak fundamentally about moral qualities or goodness in general; aspects of the word we now tend to view synonymously with ‘holiness.’ In Hebrew usage, “difference” gradually expressed cultic and covenant realities with regard to how one used the Land and was grateful for the Land that is God’s gift providing water, food and shelter. In time, qadosh came to refer to ‘anyone or anything set apart for a particular purpose’ and for Israel ‘a particular purpose’ involved living the covenant and one’s God-given mission. In addition, the reality of ‘being set apart’ is a response work, not a work initiated by a human person. Only God can ‘set one apart for mission.‘ A person, in turn, responds to that Divine work with a free response: yes or no.
This sense of holiness, bound to mission, rings throughout a well-known prayer of Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman:
Since the later part of the nineteenth century, scholars have generally referred to Leviticus chapters 17 through 26 as the “Code of Holiness.” Holy as used here in Leviticus 19:1-2, translates the Hebrew word קָדֹשׁ (qadosh). Early in the history of the word’s usage, qadosh expressed ‘difference.’ It did not speak fundamentally about moral qualities or goodness in general; aspects of the word we now tend to view synonymously with ‘holiness.’ In Hebrew usage, “difference” gradually expressed cultic and covenant realities with regard to how one used the Land and was grateful for the Land that is God’s gift providing water, food and shelter. In time, qadosh came to refer to ‘anyone or anything set apart for a particular purpose’ and for Israel ‘a particular purpose’ involved living the covenant and one’s God-given mission. In addition, the reality of ‘being set apart’ is a response work, not a work initiated by a human person. Only God can ‘set one apart for mission.‘ A person, in turn, responds to that Divine work with a free response: yes or no.
This sense of holiness, bound to mission, rings throughout a well-known prayer of Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman:
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me which
He has not committed to another.
I have my mission — I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes,
as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his —
if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another,
as He could make the stones children of Abraham.
Yet I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments and
serve Him in my calling.
He has committed some work to me which
He has not committed to another.
I have my mission — I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes,
as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his —
if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another,
as He could make the stones children of Abraham.
Yet I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments and
serve Him in my calling.
