BIBLE STUDY #144
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
August 4, 2013
READING 1
ECCLESIASTES 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
COLOSSIANS 3:1-5, 9-11
Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
LUKE 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
Jesus is on his long journey to Jerusalem where he will endure his passion, death and resurrection. At this point in the journey, as we see in 12:1, there is a massive crowd following him. Jesus is teaching the disciples and the crowds about the kingdom, faith, and discipleship. With seeming irrelevancy, a person in the crowd asks Jesus to settle a dispute about an inheritance. The laws concerning inheritance are in Deuteronomy 21:15-17 and Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:7-9. My guess is that this person was not asking Jesus for advice on the law, but I think he lost his case and wants Jesus to support him.
Jesus refuses to arbitrate this case. That is not his role. He is not a lawyer, but has come to preach and establish the Kingdom of God. He uses this opportunity to teach about greed and the accumulation of possessions.
Jesus teaches us to “Take care to guard against all greed.” The Greek word translated as greed can also be avarice. In Webster’s dictionary, greed is defined as “excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness: avarice.” Avarice is defined as “excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain.” This is a person who never has enough. Wealth becomes more important than anyone or anything else. It’s like an addiction: the more I have, the more I want.
The value of our lives comes not from what we have, but who we are. It is love, compassion, forgiveness, and all other virtues that make up a happy and successful life.
Jesus tells a parable about a rich man with a bountiful harvest. He builds bigger barns for his harvest, thinking that he us set for many years and now wants to “rest, eat, drink, be merry!” it seems he has no desire to share his good fortune with those in need. God calls him a fool because he will die tonight, and where is the heavenly treasure? If we measure our value by our earthly possessions, then we are poor. If we are poor in earthly possessions, but have stored up treasure in heaven, then we are rich.
There is nothing wrong with possessions. Possessions are neutral. It is people who are good or bad. We all want to live comfortably, have money saved up, pay for our children’s education, and have a comfortable retirement, for example. But when we are greedy, we run into several problems. We tend to accumulate wealth just to have more wealth. We don’t need it, but we want it. We measure our self worth by our wealth. Secondly, in the accumulation of wealth, we can easily over look the people in our lives. We work long hours at the expanse of our families. We can even get to the point that we will hurt others to become richer. Thirdly, greedy people tend not to share their wealth with others. Most of us are not asked to take a vow of poverty, be we are all asked to be as generous with our wealth as we can. Finally, what happens to our self esteem if we lose all of part of our wealth? With God, we are very valuable because God loves us. That will not go away.
Both Qoheleth from the first reading from Ecclesiastes and St Paul in the second reading from Colossians agrees with these sentiments. Qoheleth calls possessions vanity. He says that “all things are vanity! And St. Paul tells us to “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”
Fr. Phil
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
BIBLE STUDY #143
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
July 28, 2013
READING 1
GEENESIS 18:20-32
In those days, the LORD said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out.”
While Abraham’s visitors walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer and said:
“Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?”
The LORD replied,
“If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham spoke up again:
“See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?”
He answered, “I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there.”
But Abraham persisted, saying “What if only forty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty.”
Then Abraham said, “Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there.”
Still Abraham went on,
“Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?”
The LORD answered, “I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty.”
But he still persisted:
“Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
COLOSSIANS 2:12-14
Brothers and sisters:
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
LUKE 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
Spiritual leaders always make it a habit to teach their disciples how to pray. John the Baptist did so, and therefore the followers of Jesus ask him to do the same.
We end up with Luke’s version of the Our Father, which is much shorter than Matthew’s, the one we’re used to. Some scholars say that Luke’s version is the one Jesus taught, but I don’t think we’re about to change.
We begin by acknowledging God as our Father, a superior being, who is holy; we acknowledge our own lesser existence and dependence on God for everything. We recognize God’s absolute difference and superiority from us and our own obligation to be holy as God is holy.
Next, we pray for God’s kingdom to be established in earth, for God’s rule to be effective among us. This is proclaiming the kingdom that Jesus teaches. It’s not what we want, but what God wants.
Next, we pray for our daily bread. We are asking for what we need, but nothing in excess. We are not asking to win the lottery, or to have large investment portfolios. By implication, if we are lucky enough to have excess funds, we need to share at least some of that with those who are in need.
One significant difference between Matthew and Luke’s prayer is the treatment of forgiveness. In Matthew’s Gospel, we pray that God forgives us in the same manner that we forgive others. In other words, if we forgive little, we are forgiven little. Conversely, if we forgive a lot, we are forgiven a lot. In Luke’s Gospel, God forgives us first; then, because of God’s generosity, we are prompted to forgive others. God forgives even if we don’t.
Finally, we are asking God to not let us be tempted. This prayer encompasses some major themes in Luke’s Gospel. This prayer shows what Jesus proclaims and expresses his own deep relationship with the Father.
Luke continues to portray God as being overly generous. We’re told to ask, seek, knock, and will receive, find and the door will be opened. God is so generous to us because he values us very highly. If we know how to give our children good things, then how much more will our heavenly Father give to us?
The question to me in what do we ask for? What do we seek? What doors do we want to be opened?
When we first begin the spiritual life, much of our prayer is petition. We ask for things. Keep my family safe, let me keep my job, heal my friends sickness. Sometimes we give God direction and try to tell him what to do: give people food, clothing and shelter. These are the prayers we utter when we want to be in control. We don’t like it when God says no, which is a perfectly good response to our prayers. God promises to give us good things, not everything. While it is OK to pray this way, the better way to pray is to give up control and let God be in charge. He’s much better at it and will do a better job than we can ever hope for. Instead of telling God what to do, why don’t we ask God, “What do you want me to do? What is your will for my life?” Let God work through you and the world will be a better place.
In the first reading from Genesis, we again see God’s generosity. We also see how much he values Abraham, to let Abraham bargain with him. He is willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he can find only 10 innocent people. It also shows us that life is one of God’s precious gifts.
The second reading from Colossians tells us that Jesus suffered and died for us even if we don’t deserve it, when we don’t ask for it, even if we don’t desire it. How generous is that?
Fr. Phil
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
July 28, 2013
READING 1
GEENESIS 18:20-32
In those days, the LORD said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out.”
While Abraham’s visitors walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer and said:
“Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?”
The LORD replied,
“If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham spoke up again:
“See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?”
He answered, “I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there.”
But Abraham persisted, saying “What if only forty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty.”
Then Abraham said, “Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there.”
Still Abraham went on,
“Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?”
The LORD answered, “I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty.”
But he still persisted:
“Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
COLOSSIANS 2:12-14
Brothers and sisters:
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
LUKE 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
Spiritual leaders always make it a habit to teach their disciples how to pray. John the Baptist did so, and therefore the followers of Jesus ask him to do the same.
We end up with Luke’s version of the Our Father, which is much shorter than Matthew’s, the one we’re used to. Some scholars say that Luke’s version is the one Jesus taught, but I don’t think we’re about to change.
We begin by acknowledging God as our Father, a superior being, who is holy; we acknowledge our own lesser existence and dependence on God for everything. We recognize God’s absolute difference and superiority from us and our own obligation to be holy as God is holy.
Next, we pray for God’s kingdom to be established in earth, for God’s rule to be effective among us. This is proclaiming the kingdom that Jesus teaches. It’s not what we want, but what God wants.
Next, we pray for our daily bread. We are asking for what we need, but nothing in excess. We are not asking to win the lottery, or to have large investment portfolios. By implication, if we are lucky enough to have excess funds, we need to share at least some of that with those who are in need.
One significant difference between Matthew and Luke’s prayer is the treatment of forgiveness. In Matthew’s Gospel, we pray that God forgives us in the same manner that we forgive others. In other words, if we forgive little, we are forgiven little. Conversely, if we forgive a lot, we are forgiven a lot. In Luke’s Gospel, God forgives us first; then, because of God’s generosity, we are prompted to forgive others. God forgives even if we don’t.
Finally, we are asking God to not let us be tempted. This prayer encompasses some major themes in Luke’s Gospel. This prayer shows what Jesus proclaims and expresses his own deep relationship with the Father.
Luke continues to portray God as being overly generous. We’re told to ask, seek, knock, and will receive, find and the door will be opened. God is so generous to us because he values us very highly. If we know how to give our children good things, then how much more will our heavenly Father give to us?
The question to me in what do we ask for? What do we seek? What doors do we want to be opened?
When we first begin the spiritual life, much of our prayer is petition. We ask for things. Keep my family safe, let me keep my job, heal my friends sickness. Sometimes we give God direction and try to tell him what to do: give people food, clothing and shelter. These are the prayers we utter when we want to be in control. We don’t like it when God says no, which is a perfectly good response to our prayers. God promises to give us good things, not everything. While it is OK to pray this way, the better way to pray is to give up control and let God be in charge. He’s much better at it and will do a better job than we can ever hope for. Instead of telling God what to do, why don’t we ask God, “What do you want me to do? What is your will for my life?” Let God work through you and the world will be a better place.
In the first reading from Genesis, we again see God’s generosity. We also see how much he values Abraham, to let Abraham bargain with him. He is willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he can find only 10 innocent people. It also shows us that life is one of God’s precious gifts.
The second reading from Colossians tells us that Jesus suffered and died for us even if we don’t deserve it, when we don’t ask for it, even if we don’t desire it. How generous is that?
Fr. Phil
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