| PITH Press |
| July 2009 Readings |
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July 19, 2009, XVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Read: Jer. 23: 1-6 Eph. 2: 13-18 Mk. 6: 30-34 "He who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it." (Eph. 2:14-16)The Jews (the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were the exclusive people of the covenant with God. All who were on the outside of this covenant were a banished race, a people without the protection of God; they suffered the results of the enmity that existed between them and the Jews.God expanded His covenant to include the all the non-Jews, by means of Jesus’ ministry. For the Jews it was blasphemous to hear Jesus say that the Jews would not be the only ones, or that Jewish inheritance would not be exclusively theirs "Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." (Mt. 8:11-12)We too are the promised people of "the new and everlasting covenant".Yet we may be in the same danger that those haughty Jews found themselves in, back in Jesus’ day. It is the danger of being excluded from the Kingdom if we don’t remain faithful to the end. Reflection and commentary Psalm 50: "Gather my faithful ones before me, those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." |
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