Second reading at Mass tomorrow…

St John writes against the threat to faith and faithful living by those who have sought to redefine Christian faith as it moves towards an appreciation of the Mystery of the Trinity, to an appreciation especially of how Jesus the Christ participates in the life of the One God.

He also writes to encourage the faithful to participate more fully in the life of Christ, by avoiding sin and seeking out opportunities to love. Right faith must lead to right living.

1 John 3:1-3 
Second reading for All Saints

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Warning Concerning Antichrists
^2.18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. ²⁰ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. ²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²² Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴ Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

²⁶ I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷ But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God
²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

3.1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Love One Another
¹¹ For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹² We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰ for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2019, Allen Morris. Graffiti, Hull

Responsorial Psalm for this coming Sunday…

The extract from the psalm set to be sung at Mass this coming Sunday acknowledges God as creator, and sees our way to God in terms of our living right and ascending the mountain of the Lord.

The mountain reference probably is to the hill on which Jersualem’s Temple stands – and indeed the ancient city of Jerusalem itself.

The psalmist keeps the right side of this, but it is not uncommon to find people idealising, idolising, their religion, their country, their way at the expense of the Lord and his Kingdom.

How do you try to keep yourself free to choose the Lord’s way, the Lord’s will?

Psalm 23(24):1-6
Responsorial Psalm for the Solemnity of All Saints

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Psalm 24 (23)

¹A Psalm of David.

            The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
            the world, and those who dwell in it.
²           It is he who set it on the seas;
            on the rivers he made it firm.

³           Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
            Who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴           The clean of hands and pure of heart,
            whose soul is not set on vain things,
            who has not sworn deceitful words.

⁵           Blessings from the Lord shall he receive,
            and right reward from the God who saves him.
⁶           Such are the people who seek him,
            who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

* * *

⁷           O gates, lift high your heads;
            grow higher, ancient doors.
            Let him enter, the king of glory!

⁸           Who is this king of glory?
            The Lord, the mighty, the valiant;
            the Lord, the valiant in war.

⁹           O gates, lift high your heads;
            grow higher, ancient doors.
            Let him enter, the king of glory!

¹⁰          Who is this king of glory?
            He, the Lord of hosts,
            he is the king of glory.

 

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Psalm: From The Revised Grail Psalms: A Liturgical Psalter. (c) 2010
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2018, Allen Morris. Detail of former HolyLand Hotel model of Jerusalem, Israel Museum.

First reading for this coming Sunday…

The vision of John is a vision of the triumph of God’s grace offered to and received fruitfully be all his people, by Jews first and then by others.

The concluding reference in the excerpt from the passage below which refers to the robes of the great multitiude “washed … and made … white in the blood of the Lamb” may refer to martrydom, with which the author of Apocalypse/Revelation was familiar, but more likely here refers to the more general participation in the dying and rising of Christ to which St Paul, for exmaple refers, which is defining of the life of all Christians.

Apocalypse 7:2-4,9-14
First reading for the solemnity of All Saints

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)   

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed
7.1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.

² Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, ³ saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” ⁴ And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

⁵  12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
⁶  12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
⁷  12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
⁸  12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

A Great Multitude from Every Nation
⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵  “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2017, Allen Morris. Stained glass of St John. St Editha church, Tamworth.

Collect for this coming Sunday…

We honour and venerate the Saints, and hopefully also we seek to find inspiration in them for how we live our own lives.

For myself, when I started to read lives of the saints, it came as a surprise to recognise how much they had to struggle – against their own frailties, often, but still more commonly against those who opposed their godly lives and godly mission. In the case of the martyrs the opposition was often from those outside of the Church; but in the case of others so very often the opposition came from within the Church.

Sometimes that opposition was from individuals jealous of their reputation; sometimes from people who feared the consequences of change and renewal that the saint was bringing about.

And very often the opposition took institutional form: the number of saints who were marginalised within or even hounded out of the very religious families they founded or reformed!

It is easier for us to honour the holy ones of God when they are dead and buried.

The Collect naturally enough acknowledges and values the relationship between us and the saints. But its principal focus is on the Lord: it is his gift that we venerate in honouring the merits of the saints; and reconciliation with God, especially, that we ask for.

In our trials and triumphs, let us keep focussed on the Lord of all goodness.

Collect for All Saints

Almighty ever-living God,
by whose gift we venerate in one celebration
the merits of all the Saints,
bestow on us, we pray,
through the prayers of so many intercessors,
an abundance of the reconciliation with you
for which we earnestly long.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of the Collect: English translation of The Roman Missal ©  2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2019, Allen Morris. National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire

The Gospel for today’s Mass

An old joke, told by Jews (against themselves? or in their own defense?) goes:

A Jew is stranded on a desert island. When he is finally discovered after many years, his rescuers find that he has constructed two synagogues. “One, I go to. The other? The other I would never set foot in.”

A similar joke could be told about Christians. We are just as experienced at ‘splitting’ and anathematizing others of our tradition.

Over the centuries separation has been so great between Jews and Christians that we can forget how much we actually have in common. And in particular we forget how much more Jesus and his co-religionists had in common.

In the Gospel we hear debate and discussion between Jews of different traditions. Sadly the debate seems to get into making petty points, seeking to win the argument but at the cost of losting sight of what is most important. We are surely familiar with similar problems today, and not only in the area of religious debate.

We can most easily see this fault in others, but what about in our lives?

Let us pray for unity in love, and that it may lead us all closer to the living God.

Matthew 22:34-40
Gospel reading for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
²³ The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, ²⁴ saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ So too the second and third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ After them all, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

²⁹ But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³ And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment
³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?
⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴  “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

 
 
Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2017, Allen Morris. Floor tiles, Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem.

The second reading for Mass tomorrow

St Paul commends the Thessalonians for allowing their lives to be refashioned in Christ, for their service and for their readiness to entrust their future to Christ’s second coming.

• For what might he commend you?
• Or your church community?
• And where might he focus his challenge?

1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Second reading for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Greeting
1.1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

The Thessalonians’ Faith and Example
² We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, ³ remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. ⁹ For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2016, Allen Morris. The Second Coming/Last Judgement. Byzantine Ivory carving. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The responsorial psalm for this coming Sunday

A famous passage from Annie Dillard’s Teaching a stone to talk. Expeditions and Encounters reads

Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?

On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently  sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offence, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

It is not a complaint that could be raised against the author of the Psalm from which the Church’s song for the Liturgy of the Word is drawn.

Sadly we will miss most of the passion and richness of the psalm.

Singing of the psalm is still absent from most of our church’s, and congregational singing of the psalm absent from all of them – so even the most stirring settings that evoke passion and gratitude will fall somewhat short.

And the editors of the Lectionary have omitted most of stirring imagery. Inevitable perhaps, unless we are to be in church an awful lot longer. But the missing verses do not feature on any other Sunday either. But they are rich and wonderful and help bring a range of emotions to prayer that maybe we too often neglect.

A question to ponder: what ways are available to us to help the rich resources of the Book of Psalms become more available to the faithful of God?

Psalm 17(18):2-4,47,51
Responsorial Psalm for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Psalm 18 (17)

¹For the Choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this canticle to the Lord when he had been freed from the power of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 
²He said:

I love you, Lord, my strength;
³           O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my savior;
            my God, my rock where I take refuge;
            my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold.
⁴           I cry out, “Praised be the Lord!”
            and see, I am saved from my foes.

⁵           The waves of death rose about me;
            the torrents of destruction assailed me;
⁶           the snares of the grave surrounded me;
            the traps of death confronted me.

⁷           In my anguish I called to the Lord;
            I cried to my God for help.
            From his temple he heard my voice;
            my cry to him reached his ears.

⁸           The earth then reeled and rocked;
            the mountains were shaken to their base;
            they quaked at his terrible anger.
 
⁹           Smoke came forth from his nostrils,
            and scorching fire from his mouth;
            from him were kindled live coals.

¹⁰         He bent the heavens and came down,
            a black cloud was under his feet.
¹¹         On a cherub, he rode and he flew;
            he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹²         He made the darkness his covering,
            the dark waters of the clouds, his tent.
¹³         A brightness shone out before him,
            with hailstones and flashes of fire.

¹⁴         The Lord then thundered in the heavens;
            the Most High let his voice be heard,
            with hail and coals of fire.
¹⁵         He shot his arrows, scattered the foe,
            flashed his lightnings, and put them to flight.

¹⁶         The bed of the ocean was revealed;
            the foundations of the world were laid bare
            at your rebuke, O Lord,
            at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁷         From on high he reached down and seized me;
            he drew me forth from the mighty waters.
¹⁸         He saved me from my powerful foe,
            from my enemies, whose strength I could not match.

¹⁹         They assailed me in the day of my misfortune,
            but the Lord was my strong support.
²⁰         He brought me out to a place of freedom;
            he saved me because he loved me.

²¹         The Lord rewarded me because I was just,
            repaid me, for my hands were clean,
²²         for I have kept the ways of the Lord,
            and have not fallen away from my God.

²³         For his judgments are all before me;
            his commands I have not cast aside.
²⁴         I have been blameless before him;
            I have kept myself from guilt.
²⁵         The Lord repaid me because I was just,
            and my hands were clean in his eyes.

²⁶         With the faithful you show yourself faithful;
            with the blameless you show yourself blameless.
²⁷         With the sincere you show yourself sincere,
            but the cunning you outdo in shrewdness;
²⁸         for you save a lowly people,
            but bring low the eyes that are proud.

²⁹         It is you who give light to my lamp;
            the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
³⁰         With you I can break through a barrier,
            with my God I can scale a wall.

³¹         As for God, his way is blameless;
            the word of the Lord is pure.
            He indeed is the shield
            of all who trust in him.

³²         For who is God but the Lord?
            Who is a rock but our God?
³³         It is God who girds me with strength,
            and keeps my path free of blame.

³⁴         My feet he makes swift as the deer’s;
            he has made me stand firm on the heights.
³⁵         He has trained my hands for battle,
            and my arms to bend the bronze bow.

³⁶         You gave me your saving shield;
            with your right hand, you gave me support;
            you bent down to make me great.
³⁷         You lengthened my steps beneath me;
            and my feet have never slipped.

³⁸         I pursued and overtook my foes,
            never turning back till they were slain.
³⁹         I struck them so they could not rise;
            they fell beneath my feet.

⁴⁰         You girded me with strength for battle;
            you made my enemies fall beneath me.
⁴¹         You made my foes take flight;
            those who hated me I destroyed.

⁴²         They cried out, but there was no one to save them,
            cried to the Lord, but he did not answer.
⁴³         I crushed them fine as dust before the wind,
            trod them down like dirt in the streets.

⁴⁴         From the feuds of the people you delivered me,
            and put me at the head of the nations.
            People unknown to me served me;
⁴⁵         when they heard of me, they obeyed me.

            Foreign nations came to me cringing;
⁴⁶         foreign nations faded away.
            Trembling, they came forth from their strongholds.

⁴⁷ The Lord lives, and blest be my Rock!
            May the God of my salvation be exalted,

⁴⁸         the God who gives me redress
            and subdues the peoples under me.
 
⁴⁹         You saved me from my furious foes;
            you set me above my assailants;
            you saved me from the violent man.
⁵⁰         So I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
            to your name will I sing a psalm.

⁵¹ The Lord gives great victories to his king,
            and shows merciful love for his anointed,
            for David and his seed forever.

 
 
Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Psalm: From The Revised Grail Psalms: A Liturgical Psalter. (c) 2010 ~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2014, Allen Morris. Monument to members of the French resistance of 1940-44. Lisieux.

The first reading for this coming Sunday

The Jewish Bible establishes many laws for Jews – 613 according to medieval scholars. I have not counted them. Some of them appear in the passage from Exodus below.

These are laws particular to Israel’s unique covenantal relationship with God, as his chosen people. Early Christian debate established that Gentiles who were won to faith in Israel’s God through Christ were not bound to all of these laws (cf Acts 15)

That said, some of the laws have held a central place in Christian tradition – some permanently such as those cited by Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel, and the 10 Commandments themselves. Others have been held important for a time, but then abandoned – such as the commandment about usury below, and that of not permitting a sorceress to live.

Even those that are no longer applied literally often still have something to teach us about good living, godly living – for example 23.4-5 below. Our ‘enemies’ (if thus we choose to call them) may no longer have oxes or donkeys, but there are still many times when in charity they deserve our care.

• Which of those below would you choose to observe?
• What wisdom do you find in the one’s you reject, at least in the form they are given?

Exodus 22:20-26
First reading for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Laws About Social Justice
22.¹⁶ “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. ¹⁷ If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.

¹⁸ “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.

¹⁹ “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.

²⁰ “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

²¹ “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²² You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. ²³ If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, ²⁴ and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

²⁵ “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. ²⁶ If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, ²⁷ for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

²⁸ “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.

²⁹ “You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. ³⁰ You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.

³¹ “You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

23.1 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. ² You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, ³ nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

⁴ “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. ⁵ If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

⁶ “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. ⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. ⁸ And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

⁹ “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2019, Allen Morris. Detail of Font cover, St Mary and St John’s, Wolverhampton.

This coming Sunday’s Collect

The virtues of faith, hope and love – active in us – draw us more fully into the life of the kingdom here on earth, and prepare us to enter into the life of heaven, with God for ever.

It is worth considering what hold their opposites might sometimes have over us.

The opposite of faith is not so much doubt, for often it is our uncertainty and questioning that leads us to renew faith, to deepen our trust in God. Rather it is likely to be a shallowness of relationship a sort of ‘what does it matter’ attitude. Faith is about commitment, its opposite is a drifting away.

Hope’s opposite is surely despair – and again what makes the difference is the breaking of that relationship with God. It is God’s love – manifested in so many ways, and most profoundly in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ dying and rising – that gives us hope. We lose it when we forget…

And love’s opposite? Hate, probably. Our tradition teaches of the principal forms of love – love of God, of neighbour and of self. Hate of self, hate of neighbour and hate of God go together to – either explicitly or implicitly. The cure? Jesus seems to have located it in God’s love for us – when we can attend to that, accept that, things change…

Collect for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Almighty ever-living God,
increase our faith, hope and charity,
and make us love what you command,
so that we may merit what you promise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Acknowledgements
~ Translation of the Collect: English translation of The Roman Missal ©  2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2016, Allen Morris. Stained Glass, Tewkesbury Abbey.

Today’s Gospel for Mass

Now, far be it from me to correct or caveat what Jesus says, but…

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus concludes the debate with his opponents and critics by saying to them: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

So far fine… But those words have found a wider and more general application down the centuries as making a distinction between God’s realm and Caesar’s: between a secular world and the Church, even.

Jesus makes a valid point in the context of controversy, but he knows – as should we – that there is indeed one world, only one true kingdom, namely God’s. Ultimately, whatever respect it is proper to pay to “Caesar” and to Caesar’s laws, that needs to be within the limits of what is acceptable in God’s kingdom, whatever is in accord with God’s will.

Jesus’ quick-wittedness and irony demonstrates to his opponents they seem to have embraced a two worlds theory. How sadly ironic that Jesus words have subsequently been used to defend just such a theory.

But there is one kingdom. God’s.

This point is forcefully made in Pope Francis’ recent Encyclical Fratelli Tutti – take a look, for example, at paragraphs 118-120 about re-envisaging the social role of property. W emay find ourselves more ready to submit to the law of Caesar than we are to rise to the challenge of the love of neighbour!

Gospel reading for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 22:15-21

(NB the text set for Sunday is given below in bold and in ‘quote sections’ below; the rest is the immediate biblical text from which the Lectionary text is extracted)

Paying Taxes to Caesar
¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. ¹⁶ And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. ¹⁷ Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin for the tax.”

And they brought him a denarius.

²⁰ And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

²¹ They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
²³ The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, ²⁴ saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ So too the second and third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ After them all, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
²⁹ But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³ And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

 
 
Acknowledgements
~ Translation of Scriptures: English Standard Version (c) 2001-9, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
~ Commentary: © 2020, Allen Morris
~ Photograph:© 2020, Allen Morris. The Tribute Money, Titian: National Gallery, London