Navarre Bible Commentary:Tuesday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Salt and Light by Bernie Rosage, Jr.

Matthew 5:13–16

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, St. John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in Catechism paragraphs 326, 764, 782, 1243, 1454, 2763 and 2821.

Commentary

Salt of the earth and light of the world

5:13–16. These verses are calling to that apostolate which is part and parcel of being a Christian. Every Christian has to strive for personal sanctification, but he also has to seek the sanctification of others. Jesus teaches us this, using the very expressive simile of salt and light. Salt preserves food from corruption; it also brings out its flavour and make it more pleasant; and it disappears into the food; the Christian should do the same among the people around him.

“You are salt, apostolic soul. ‘Bonum est sal: salt is a useful thing’, we read in the holy Gospel; ‘si autem sal evanuerit: but if the salt loses its taste’, it is good for nothing, neither for the land nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out as useless. You are salt, apostolic soul. But if you lose your taste …” (St Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 921).

Good works are the fruit of charity, which consists in loving others as God loves us (cf. Jn 15:12). “I see now,” St Thérèse of Lisieux writes, “that true charity consists in bearing with the faults of those about us, never being surprised at their weaknesses, but edified at the least sign of virtue. I see above all that charity must not remain hidden in the bottom of our hearts: ‘nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.’ It seems to me that this lamp is the symbol of charity; it must shine out not only to cheer up those we love best but all in the house” (The Autobiography of a Saint, chap. 9).

Apostolate is one of the clearest expressions of charity. The Second Vatican Council emphasized the Christian’s duty to be apostolic. Baptism and Confirmation confer this duty, which is also a right (cf. Lumen gentium, 33), so much so that, because the Christian is part of the Mystical Body, “a member who does not work at the growth of the body to the extent of his possibilities must be considered useless both to the Church and to himself” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2). “Laymen have countless opportunities for exercising the apostolate of evangelization and sanctification. The very witness of a Christian life, and good works done in a supernatural spirit, are effective in drawing men to the faith and to God; and that is what the Lord has said: ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’ ” (ibid., 6).

“The Church must be present to these groups [those who do not even believe in God] through those of its members who live among them or have been sent to them. All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man, which they put on in Baptism, and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation, so that others, seeing their good works, might glorify the Father and more perfectly perceive the true meaning of human life and the universal solidarity of mankind” (Ad gentes, 11; cf. 36).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:Friday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Luke by James Tissot

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Friday, October 18, 2013

28th Week in Ordinary Time

Feast: St. Luke, Evangelist

Luke 10:1-9

The Mission of the Seventy Disciples

[1] After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come. [2] And He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. [3] Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. [4] Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. [5] Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' [6] And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. [7] And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house. [8] Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; [9] heal the sick in it and say to them, "The Kingdom of God has come near to you."

Cited in the Catechism: In declaring the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 765, 2122 and 2611.

Commentary:

1-12. Those who followed our Lord and received a calling from Him (cf. Luke 9: 57-62) included many other disciples in addition to the Twelve (cf. Mark 2:15). We do not know who most of them were; but undoubtedly some of them were with Him all along, from when Jesus was baptized by John up to the time of His ascension --for example, Joseph called Barrabas, and Matthias (cf. Acts 1:21- 26). We can also include Cleopas and his companion, whom the risen Christ appeared to on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35).

From among these disciples, our Lord chooses seventy-two for a special assignment. Of them, as of the Apostles (cf. Luke 9:1-5), He demands total detachment and complete abandonment to divine providence.

From Baptism onwards every Christian is called by Christ to perform a mission. Therefore, the Church, in our Lord's name, "makes to all the laity an earnest appeal in the Lord to give a willing, noble and enthusiastic response to the voice of Christ, who at this hour is summoning them more pressingly, and to the urging of the Holy Spirit. The younger generation should feel this call to be addressed in a special way to themselves; they should welcome it eagerly and generously. It is the Lord Himself, by this Council, who is once more inviting all the laity to unite themselves to Him ever more intimately, to consider His interests as their own (cf. Philippians 2:5), and to join in His mission as Savior. It is the Lord who is again sending them into every town and every place where He Himself is to come (cf. Luke 10:1). He sends them on the Church's apostolate, an apostolate that is one yet has different forms and methods, an apostolate that must all the time be adapting itself to the needs of the moment; He sends them on an apostolate where they are to show themselves His cooperators, doing their full share continually in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor cannot be lost (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58)" (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 33).

3-4. Christ wants to instill apostolic daring into His disciples; this is why He says, "I send you out", which leads St. John Chrysostom to comment: "This suffices to give us encouragement, to give us confidence and to ensure that we are not afraid of our assailants" (Hom. on St. Matthew, 33). The Apostles' and disciples' boldness stemmed from their firm conviction that they were on a God-given mission: they acted, as Peter the Apostle confidently explained to the Sanhedrin, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

"And the Lord goes on," St. Gregory the Great adds, "Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.' Such should be the confidence the preacher places in God that even if he is not provided with the necessities of life, he is convinced that they will come his way. This will ensure that worry about providing temporal things for himself does not distract him from providing others with eternal things" (In Evangelia Homiliae, 17). Apostolate calls for generous self- surrender which leads to detachment; therefore, Peter, following our Lord's commandment, when the beggar at the Beautiful Gate asked him for alms (Acts 3:2- 3), said, "I have no silver or gold" ("ibid.", 3:6), "not so as to glory in his poverty", St. Ambrose points out, "but to obey the Lord's command. It is as if he were saying, 'You see in me a disciple of Christ, and you ask me for gold? He gave us something much more valuable than gold, the power to act in His name. I do not have what Christ did not give me, but I do have what He did give me: In the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk' (cf. Acts 3:6)" (Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.). Apostolate, therefore, demands detachment from material things and it also requires us to be always available, for there is an urgency about apostolic work.

"And salute no one on the road": "How can it be", St. Ambrose asks himself, "that the Lord wishes to get rid of a custom so full of kindness? Notice, however, that He does not just say, 'Do not salute anyone', but adds, 'on the road.' And there is a reason for this.

"He also commanded Elisha not to salute anyone he met, when He sent him to lay his staff on the body of the dead child (2 Kings 4:29): He gave him this order so as to get him to do this task without delay and affect the raising of the child, and not waste time by stopping to talk to any passerby he met. Therefore, there is no question of omitting good manners to greet others; it is a matter of removing a possible obstacle in the way of service; when God commands, human considerations should be set aside, at least for the time being. To greet a person is a good thing, but it is better to carry out a divine instruction which could easily be frustrated by a delay (ibid.).

6. Everyone is "a son of peace" who is disposed to accept the teaching of the Gospel which brings with it God's peace. Our Lord's recommendation to His disciples to proclaim peace should be a constant feature of all the apostolic action of Christians: "Christian apostolate is not a political program or a cultural alternative. It implies the spreading of good, 'infecting' others with a desire to love, sowing peace and joy" (St. J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 124).

Feeling peace in our soul and in our surroundings is an unmistakable sign that God is with us, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22): "Get rid of these scruples that deprive you of peace. What takes away your peace of soul cannot come from God. When God comes to you, you will feel the truth of those greetings: My peace I give to you..., peace I leave you..., peace be with you..., and you will feel it even in the midst of troubles" (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 258).

7. Our Lord clearly considered poverty and detachment a key feature in an apostle. But He was aware of His disciples' material needs and therefore stated the principle that apostolic ministry deserves its recompense. Vatican II reminds us that we all have an obligation to contribute to the sustenance of those who generously devote themselves to the service of the Church: "Completely devoted as they are to the service of God in the fulfillment of the office entrusted to them, priests are entitled to receive a just remuneration. For 'the laborer deserves his wages' (Luke 10:7), and 'the Lord commanded that they who proclaim the Gospel should get their living by the Gospel' (1 Corinthians 9:14). For this reason, insofar as provision is not made from some other source for the just remunera- tion of priests, the faithful are bound by a real obligation of seeing to it that the necessary provision for a decent and fitting livelihood for the priests are available" (Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 20).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:Thursday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

Christ and the Apostles by Georges Rouault

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Thursday, October 3, 2013

26th Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 10:1-12

The Mission of the Seventy Disciples

[1] After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come. [2] And He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. [3] Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. [4] Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. [5] Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' [6] And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. [7] And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house. [8] Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; [9] heal the sick in it and say to them, "The Kingdom of God has come near to you.' [10] But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, [11] 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God has come near.' [12] I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town."

Cited in the Catechism:  In declaring the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 765, 2122 and 2611.

Commentary:

1-12. Those who followed our Lord and received a calling from Him (cf. Luke 9: 57-62) included many other disciples in addition to the Twelve (cf. Mark 2:15). We do not know who most of them were; but undoubtedly some of them were with Him all along, from when Jesus was baptized by John up to the time of His ascension --for example, Joseph called Barrabas, and Matthias (cf. Acts 1:21- 26). We can also include Cleopas and his companion, whom the risen Christ appeared to on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35).

From among these disciples, our Lord chooses seventy-two for a special assignment. Of them, as of the Apostles (cf. Luke 9:1-5), He demands total detachment and complete abandonment to divine providence.

From Baptism onwards every Christian is called by Christ to perform a mission. Therefore, the Church, in our Lord's name, "makes to all the laity an earnest appeal in the Lord to give a willing, noble and enthusiastic response to the voice of Christ, who at this hour is summoning them more pressingly, and to the urging of the Holy Spirit. The younger generation should feel this call to be addressed in a special way to themselves; they should welcome it eagerly and generously. It is the Lord Himself, by this Council, who is once more inviting all the laity to unite themselves to Him ever more intimately, to consider His interests as their own (cf. Philippians 2:5), and to join in His mission as Savior. It is the Lord who is again sending them into every town and every place where He Himself is to come (cf. Luke 10:1). He sends them on the Church's apostolate, an apostolate that is one yet has different forms and methods, an apostolate that must all the time be adapting itself to the needs of the moment; He sends them on an apostolate where they are to show themselves His cooperators, doing their full share continually in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor cannot be lost (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58)" (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 33).

3-4. Christ wants to instill apostolic daring into His disciples; this is why He says, "I send you out", which leads St. John Chrysostom to comment: "This suffices to give us encouragement, to give us confidence and to ensure that we are not afraid of our assailants" (Hom. on St. Matthew, 33). The Apostles' and disciples' bold- ness stemmed from their firm conviction that they were on a God-given mission: they acted, as Peter the Apostle confidently explained to the Sanhedrin, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

"And the Lord goes on," St. Gregory the Great adds, "Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.' Such should be the confidence the preacher places in God that even if he is not provided with the necessities of life, he is convinced that they will come his way. This will ensure that worry about providing temporal things for himself does not distract him from providing others with eternal things" (In Evangelia Homiliae, 17). Apostolate calls for generous self- surrender which leads to detachment; therefore, Peter, following our Lord's commandment, when the beggar at the Beautiful Gate asked him for alms (Acts 3:2- 3), said, "I have no silver or gold" ("ibid.", 3:6), "not so as to glory in his poverty", St. Ambrose points out, "but to obey the Lord's command. It is as if he were saying, 'You see in me a disciple of Christ, and you ask me for gold? He gave us something much more valuable than gold, the power to act in His name. I do not have what Christ did not give me, but I do have what He did give me: In the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk' (cf. Acts 3:6)" (Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.). Apostolate, therefore, demands detachment from material things and it also requires us to be always available, for there is an urgency about apostolic work.

"And salute no one on the road": "How can it be", St. Ambrose asks himself, "that the Lord wishes to get rid of a custom so full of kindness? Notice, however, that He does not just say, 'Do not salute anyone', but adds, 'on the road.' And there is a reason for this.

"He also commanded Elisha not to salute anyone he met, when He sent him to lay his staff on the body of the dead child (2 Kings 4:29): He gave him this order so as to get him to do this task without delay and affect the raising of the child, and not waste time by stopping to talk to any passerby he met. Therefore, there is no question of omitting good manners to greet others; it is a matter of removing a possible obstacle in the way of service; when God commands, human considerations should be set aside, at least for the time being. To greet a person is a good thing, but it is better to carry out a divine instruction which could easily be frustrated by a delay (ibid.).

6. Everyone is "a son of peace" who is disposed to accept the teaching of the Gospel which brings with it God's peace. Our Lord's recommendation to His disciples to proclaim peace should be a constant feature of all the apostolic action of Christians: "Christian apostolate is not a political program or a cultural alternative. It implies the spreading of good, 'infecting' others with a desire to love, sowing peace and joy" (St. J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 124).

Feeling peace in our soul and in our surroundings is an unmistakable sign that God is with us, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22): "Get rid of these scruples that deprive you of peace. What takes away your peace of soul cannot come from God. When God comes to you, you will feel the truth of those greetings: My peace I give to you..., peace I leave you..., peace be with you..., and you will feel it even in the midst of troubles" (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 258).

7. Our Lord clearly considered poverty and detachment a key feature in an apos- tle. But He was aware of His disciples' material needs and therefore stated the principle that apostolic ministry deserves its recom- pense. Vatican II reminds us that we all have an obligation to contribute to the sustenance of those who generously devote themselves to the service of the Church: "Completely devoted as they are to the service of God in the fulfillment of the office entrusted to them, priests are entitled to receive a just remuneration. For 'the laborer deserves his wages' (Luke 10:7), and 'the Lord commanded that they who proclaim the Gospel should get their living by the Gospel' (1 Corinthians 9:14). For this reason, insofar as provision is not made from some other source for the just remunera- tion of priests, the faithful are bound by a real obligation of seeing to it that the necessary provision for a decent and fitting livelihood for the priests are available" (Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 20).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Non-Affiliated Joe Catholic tumblr Hacked

The Joe Catholic

The Joe Catholic tumblr page that is NOT affiliated with the Joe Catholic apostolate has been hacked with pornographic material. Make sure you use the correct URL for THE Joe Catholic - http://www.thejoecatholic.org/

Notre Dame: Not the Only Catholic Team on Prime Time

BCS Coach's Trophy, wikimedia commons

Notre Dame wasn't the only Catholic team on prime time television last night. (Ok, no jokes about them not showing up.) The team from Catholics Come Home had a prime time commercial spot during the second half of the game. Catholics Come Home is an apostolate of the new evangelization. They put together media resources (video and online) to help parishes and other Catholic groups (and individuals) bring home Catholics who have left the Church.

The ad ran earlier in the bowl season too. If you didn't catch it, here it is.

What is the Role of the Laity?

The role of the laity, outlined primarily in Apostolicam Actuositatem, may seem ordinary to Catholics today, but it was a radical concept when introduced by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Christ commissioned the Church to spread the Gospel to all the nations (Matt 28:19-20) and the Council defined the role of the laity within the context of this apostolic mission. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (863) directly explains that “all members of the Church share in this mission.” Hence the Council defined “all activity of the Mystical Body directed to the attainment of this goal” of evangelization and sanctification as the apostolate (AA, 2).

Sacrosanctum Concilium

According to Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), the Church prepares the laity for the apostolate by instructing them to follow the teachings of Christ. The Church invites the faithful to participate in “the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate.” These acts demonstrate that Christ’s followers “though not of this world, are to be the light of the world and to glorify the Father before men” (SC, 9).

Lumen Gentium

Lumen Gentium (LG) lays the foundational understanding of the role of the faithful in works of the apostolate. The laity, as members of the Body of Christ, is called to use their entire well being for the growth and continued sanctification of the Church (LG, 33). The lay apostolate “is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself.” Through the sacraments of initiation, the faithful are called directly by God to answer this vocation. The “soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished” through the Eucharist. Fortified by the sacraments, the laity are called “to make the Church present and operative” in all walks of life (LG, 35). 

Apostolicam Actuositatem

Apostolicam Actuositatem (AA), viewed in conjunction with Lumen Gentium (LM, 4 & 5), can be called a practical handbook to the universal call to holiness. The Council explains that the lay apostolate stems from the general Christian vocation and is vital to the Church (AA, 1). The lay faithful “share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ” and therefore share in the mission to evangelize all the nations (AA, 2). They are essential precisely because they possess the ability to enter into all aspects of life and address the needs of a changing world. 

Each member participates in the apostolate through “the faith, hope, and charity which the Holy Spirit diffuses in the hearts of all members of the Church.” This participation is forged through the gifts of the Holy Spirit in each (AA, 3). Furthermore, it is formed and influenced by one’s particular state of life (LG, V, 42). Moreover, “the success of the lay apostolate depends upon the laity’s living union with Christ” (AA, 4). This means by sanctifying their ordinary lives they witness to the Gospel truth, announcing it to non-believers and fortifying the faith of believers (AA, 5). The sacred synod spurs the laity to use their particular gifts “to explain, defend, and properly apply Christian principles to the problems of our era in accordance with the mind of the Church” (AA, 6). The function of the apostolate is to influence the temporal order and cultural milieu into conformity with Christian ideals (AA, 7).