Sunday Meditation: The Greatest Commandment

We see again this Sunday the Pharisees testing Jesus.  Jesus again passes the test.

 

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,

they gathered together, and one of them,

a scholar of the law tested him by asking,

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him,

"You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

~Mt 22:34-40

Jesus shows His command of the scriptures by pulling two commandments from different parts of the Torah—Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18—and combining them into one greatest commandment.  This week I have found a new voice in providing an explanation of the readings and giving us an application for our lives, Catholic Homilies and Reflections. 

 

That is amazingly thorough.  The meditation I think should be on the relationship between the two.

Meditation: "The second is like it."

Sunday Meditation: Caesar’s Coin

Finally in this Sunday’s reading, we don’t get a parable, but we do get a deep insight from Jesus.  In the parables in recent Sundays, Jesus has boldly confronted the Pharisees by placing them in the villain’s role of the little stories.  The bad son who agrees to tend the vineyard but doesn’t, the tenant farmers who kill the landlord’s son, the guests who refuse to go to the royal wedding are all stand-ins for the Pharisees.  And the Pharisees know it, and so they plot against Jesus.

 

The Pharisees went off

and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,

"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,

for you do not regard a person's status.

Tell us, then, what is your opinion:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"

Knowing their malice, Jesus said,

"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Show me the coin that pays the census tax."

Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"

They replied, "Caesar's."

At that he said to them,

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

~Mt 22:15-21

Is Jesus more confrontational in Matthew’s Gospel than the others?  It’s hard to say without putting the four gospels side by side but it does feel it given the recent Sunday readings.  The Pharisees are certainly trying to be confrontational with Him here, but He doesn’t back down one iota. 

Father Geoffrey Plant does a superb job in providing the entire context.  Only he of the various explanations I looked up explains why the Herodians are in the mix.  See if you can catch it.  The video is a bit long, but well worth it.

 

So the Herodians are spying to see if Jesus says no to paying the tax.  They are Caesar’s representative here.  And the puritanical Pharisees (they are the “separated ones”) are there to catch Him saying yes to paying the tax.  Notice also, for all of their purity, they actually have a Roman coin with the graven image and heretical saying on it. 

Now Fr. Geoffrey’s explanation was a great historical and even theological lesson.  But I found an excellent pastoral exegesis on this passage from Jeff Cavins from Ascension ministries.  So I include two for the price of one.  This is worth it too.

 

Meditation: "Then repay…to God what belongs to God."

Sunday Meditation: The Parable of the Royal Wedding Feast

Jesus continues His parables this week again from the Gospel of Matthew.  This time the central metaphor is not a vineyard but to a wedding feast, and not just an ordinary wedding feast but for a royal wedding feast of the King’s son.  That should tip us off as to the significance of the symbolism, but there are some really wacky twists in this parable. 

 

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables, saying,

"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king

who gave a wedding feast for his son.

He dispatched his servants

to summon the invited guests to the feast,

but they refused to come.

A second time he sent other servants, saying,

'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,

my calves and fattened cattle are killed,

and everything is ready; come to the feast."'

Some ignored the invitation and went away,

one to his farm, another to his business.

The rest laid hold of his servants,

mistreated them, and killed them.

The king was enraged and sent his troops,

destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,

but those who were invited were not worthy to come.

Go out, therefore, into the main roads

and invite to the feast whomever you find.'

The servants went out into the streets

and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,

and the hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to meet the guests,

he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.

The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it

that you came in here without a wedding garment?'

But he was reduced to silence.

Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,

and cast him into the darkness outside,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'

Many are invited, but few are chosen."

~Mt 22:1-14

I have to confess, I really burst out laughing at the ending.  Poor man off the street is invited to a wedding reception and, though he shows up under dressed, the King, after calling him his friend, has him bound hands and feet and tossed outside for not being properly dressed.  Next time you go to a wedding, make sure you dress well.  You wouldn’t want to be beaten up for it…lol. 

No one explains parables better than Dr. Brant Pitre.  He explained last week’s and I have to call on him again this week.  His explanation for this one comes in two video clips.

 

 

The man lacks righteousness, which I take to be the corporal works of mercy, which would tie it to the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew’s Chapter 25 and which will be read shortly in a future Mass.  But why is the man without the wedding garment speechless?  Dr. Pitre doesn’t say.  Perhaps he has no excuse and doesn’t bother to argue. 

Meditation: “Many are invited, but few are chosen."

Sunday Meditation: The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

This week we get another parable set in a vineyard.  This is the third vineyard parable in a row from the Gospel of Matthew.  Is there a reason?  Yes.  We’ll get to that.  First the Gospel reading.

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:

"Hear another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,

put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

When vintage time drew near,

he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,

another they killed, and a third they stoned.

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,

but they treated them in the same way.

Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,

'They will respect my son.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,

'This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'

They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"

They answered him,

"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death

and lease his vineyard to other tenants

who will give him the produce at the proper times."

Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

by the Lord has this been done,

and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Therefore, I say to you,

the kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

~Mt 21:33-43

Why is the vineyard such an important image for Jesus?  The vineyard is an allusion to the vineyard in chapter five of the Book of Isiah, which happens to be the first reading from today’s lectionary.  Dr. Brant Pitre explains.

 

Reminds me of “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” 

Meditation: “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

Sunday Meditation: The Parable of the Two Sons

This week after Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem, cleansing the Temple, cursing the fig tree, and refusing to tell the Chief Priest and Elders by whose authority He performs, he tells them the Parable of the Two Sons. 

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:

"What is your opinion?

A man had two sons.

He came to the first and said,

'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'

He said in reply, 'I will not,'

but afterwards changed his mind and went.

The man came to the other son and gave the same order.

He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, 'but did not go.

Which of the two did his father's will?"

They answered, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,

tax collectors and prostitutes

are entering the kingdom of God before you.

When John came to you in the way of righteousness,

you did not believe him;

but tax collectors and prostitutes did.

Yet even when you saw that,

you did not later change your minds and believe him."

~Mt 21:28-32

This is one of the few parables that actually is not difficult to understand, and I think it’s because Jesus wants to be crystal clear to the Elders at the Temple.  It may be simple but it cuts to the heart.  Fr. Joseph Mary has a wonderful explanation of the parable. 

The first son has a change of heart.  The second son paid lip service and disobeyed.  Of course Jesus is indicting the Elders as the second son.

Meditation: “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.”