The Sunday Word

A Commentary on the Sunday Readings

Henry Wansbrough

• Publisher: Burns & Oates
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781441144195
• eBook ISBN: 9781441112125
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Reflections on the Sunday readings from leading Catholic biblical scholar, Henry Wansbrough OSB. Reflections on the Sunday readings from leading Catholic biblical scholar, Henry Wansbrough OSB.

Year A

Second Sunday of the year

First reading: Israel, Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 49.3, 5-6)

We are about to set out, in the Ordinary Sundays of Year A, on a journey through Matthew’s account of Jesus’ ministry. In the gospels themselves of Mark, Matthew and Luke, the reader accompanies the disciples in learning only gradually who and what Jesus is. In the arrangement of the lectionary, however, put before us by the Church, the gospel reading of this first Sunday is from John, showing clearly who Jesus is, this year ‘the Chosen One of God’. The first reading from Isaiah, written in the dark days of the Babylonian Exile, introduces a Servant of the Lord, formed in the womb to be the Lord’s Servant and to bring light both to Israel and to the nations. Is this an individual whose mission is to bring Israel back to the Lord, or is it the nation of Israel, destined to bring the gentile nations to the Lord? Despite the failure to recognize the Messiah, the faithful of Israel still bear witness ‘to the ends of the earth’ to God’s promises. It is remarkable that already at this stage of revelation the universalist task given by God is seen to be to bring the whole world within the orbit of the salvation promised to Israel.

Question: To what extent am I called to follow Christ as the Servant of the Lord?

Second reading: The Beginning of First Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1.1-3)

One-third of this great letter is read at the beginning of each of the three years of the cycle. Paul greets them as the ‘holy people of God’, but – like the pilgrim Church today – they were far from uniformly holy. But they were chosen to be holy, so by that same divine choice given a designation to be holy. Corinth was a turbulent city. It had been sacked by the Romans for rebellion. But it lay on the narrow neck of land between the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, and so was a vital resource for shipping between eastern and western Mediterranean. After 100 years it was rebuilt, and 100 years after that, when Paul was writing, it was again a boom town, with two harbours, an international games more famous than the Olympics and a large segment of Jewish population. Paul spent 18 months evangelizing the city before being driven out by the Jews. However, he kept in close contact and wrote them several letters. It was not an easy relationship: the Corinthians were arrogant and quarrelsome. Paul does not hesitate to correct them. He calls them babies whom he can feed only on milk, which must have upset the city elders among them!

Question: What would your reaction be if Paul called you a baby to be fed on milk?

Gospel: The Lamb of God (John 1.29-34)

In contrast to the other gospels, where the reader observes the disciples discovering gradually who Jesus is, John gives us a week between the baptism and the marriage feast of Cana, during which Jesus is given increasingly significant titles by those who meet him: Rabbi, the Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel. Perhaps the most significant of all are those given by the Baptist himself, Lamb of God and Chosen One of God. Lamb of God overarches the gospel, for it comes again at the Crucifixion. According to John Jesus dies at the moment the paschal lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple, and John alone refers to Jesus the scriptural saying ‘Not one bone of his will be broken’ (John 19.36), originally part of the instructions for the sacrificing of the lamb at the Festival of Passover (Exodus 12.46). In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is represented standing ‘as a Lamb that seemed to have been sacrificed’. It is, therefore, an image both of his suffering and of his triumph. It links up with the picture of Jesus as the Suffering Servant of the Lord who moves through suffering and humiliation to vindication and to the triumph of God.

Reflection: Reflect on Jesus as the Lamb standing as if sacrificed.

Third Sunday

First reading: Light in the Land of Darkness (Isaiah 9.1-4)

This prophecy of Isaiah is chosen as the first reading because in the gospel reading, Matthew sees its fulfilment in the healing activity of Jesus in Galilee, the region once allotted to the two northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphthali. Not long before the total collapse of the Northern Kingdom of Israel they were invaded and devastated by the mighty power of Assyria. They are therefore given as the archetype of the ruined territory that will be restored to light, joy and rich harvest when God comes to save his people. In fact, Galilee has rich soil and wide plains. The Jewish historian at the time of Jesus is lyrical about the abundance and variety of fruit grown there. The prophecy of restoration is expressed in the past tense (‘have seen a great light’) to emphasize its certainty: it is so sure that it can be described as if it had already happened, a tense known as ‘the prophetic past’. The passage of Isaiah goes on, after our reading, to speak of the child to be born, who will achieve this transformation. He will be ‘Wonder Counsellor, Prince of Peace’. Such was the background of hope which gave their full meaning to Jesus’ deeds as he brought divine healing and restoration in Galilee.

Question: What is the most important element that would restore our country to God’s service?

Second reading: A Divided Community (1 Corinthians 1.10-13, 17-18)

It is hardly surprising that the Christians at Corinth were a divided community; there were so many different levels of employment and wealth, financiers, dockers, tent makers, administrators and many others in that town with its double port, its booming trade, its biennial games and supporting trades. Paul shows us that there were also cliques claiming different personal loyalties. Some claimed to be Paul’s own followers. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria and a notable orator; perhaps he had the intellectual following. Cephas is the Aramaic name for Peter; his following may have been Christians sprung from Judaism who wanted to keep their Jewish practices in food, circumcision and Sabbath observance. Paul will have none of this party politics, one group hurling slogans at another. They would not even come together as a genuine community at the Eucharist. Paul had baptized people to be not his own followers but followers of Christ. Later in the letter, he will explain that Christians must form a single organic body, all working together in harmony, each with a special task and special gifts, but all contributing to the wellbeing of the whole. This is his basic vision of the Christian body, all living with the one life of Christ.

Question: Are there any echoes of such disunity in your community?

Gospel: The Call of the First Disciples (Matthew 4.12-23)

This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Matthew first introduces us to Galilee, characteristically quoting the scriptures to show that they are being fulfilled, and in what way. Galilee is called ‘Galilee of the gentiles’ only in this passage, and it was not a particularly notable feature of Galilee. Archaeology shows that Jewish observance was strong in the region. Contemporary literature shows that there was a lively tradition of prayerful charismatic rabbis with a warm devotion to the Lord. Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming the imminence of the Kingdom of God, which will be the subject of all his activity. Then he begins to form the new Israel by calling his team together. The Christian imagination tends to combine this scene with the scene with the Baptist in the Jordan Valley in the gospel of John, which gives at least Peter and Andrew some knowledge of Jesus. But today’s narrative must be heard on its own, and the staggering factor is that this is the first time at any rate the sons of Zebedee have set eyes on Jesus. As he passes by he calls them, and such is the electrifying power of his charismatic personality that they simply drop everything and follow this total stranger – immediately, as the evangelist stresses each time.

Question: Do I ever follow Jesus’ call immediately and unconditionally?

Fourth Sunday

First reading: Blessed by the Lord (Zephaniah 2.3; 3.12-13)

Before the Babylonian Exile, Israel tended to equate material prosperity with divine blessing: those who prospered did so because of the Lord’s blessing; those who did not must in some way be blameworthy. The Exile put an end to all that, and the consequent puzzlement is visible in the Book of Job. These verses from the prophecy of Zephaniah show the new and more satisfying analysis: it is the humble of the Lord who will receive divine blessing, those who seek refuge in the Name or Power of the Lord and recognize their entire dependence on him. The nation of Israel was the plaything of the great powers on either side, dominated first by one, then by the other. This is the spirituality of the powerless Remnant, not giving themselves airs or trusting in their own strength. It is perfectly and consciously exemplified in the personnel of the Lukan Infancy Narratives, where Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna humbly obey the law and await the salvation that is to come to them from the Lord. This spirit was not the strong suit of the Corinthians to whom Paul writes! It is partly exemplified also in the Beatitudes that will form the gospel reading.

Question: What, then, is true Christian humility? Is it to say that I am no good at anything, or to recognize my talents and be grateful for them?

Second reading: Reversal of Values (1 Corinthians 1.26-31)

The Corinthians seem to have been particularly pleased with themselves, so that Paul mercilessly lavishes his sarcasm on them. In their bravado and their complacency, they were happy to rely on their own resources, and expected to be saved by them. Paul repeats to them the lesson of Zephaniah. The public reading of the letter must have embarrassed those at whom it was aimed, and the vigour of Paul’s criticism was perhaps the reason why his relationships with this community continued stormy for some time. For us, however, the positive teaching is a treasure, that Christ is for us our wisdom, our strength, our holiness and our freedom. Only through Christ can we achieve our ambitions and grow to full human maturity, by participating in these qualities of Christ. Once incorporated into Christ by baptism, we already share in his wisdom, holiness and strength, and even in his freedom, if only we rely on that and not on ourselves. Paul goes on to say that Christ is the Wisdom of God, a teaching elaborated in the later epistles (possibly written not by Paul himself) to the Colossians and Ephesians.

Question: Isn’t it a blessing that none of us is conceited or cliquish?

Gospel reading: The Beatitudes (Matthew 5.1-12)

These eight blessings stand at the head of the Sermon on the Mount, pointing out eight ways in which we can welcome God into our lives. They are ways of living out God’s blessing. The first and the last knit them all together with ‘theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. Luke also begins his Sermon on the Plain with four such blessings – only his blessings are more on those who are materially poor and in need, whereas Matthew’s concentrate on the spiritual attitudes required of the Christian, ‘poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for justice’. Jesus came to proclaim the Kingship of his Father, and these are ways of living it. For each of them, do you know someone who exemplifies the attitude? Which is your own favourite? For most of them there are gospel incidents in which Jesus sums them up, like the entry into Jerusalem on a donkey as the gentle king, or the love he shows in his welcome to sinners, or his bringing peace to those tortured by disease or contempt, or his purity of heart in his single-minded preoccupation with his Father’s will, and, finally, his acceptance of persecution for what he knew to be right.

Question: Are any of these qualities more basic than others?

Fifth Sunday

First reading: Authentic Conversion (Isaiah 58.6-10)

Look out! Lent is not far away! We need to start thinking again about genuine conversion, turning back to the Lord. This passage comes far on in the Book of Isaiah, written when the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon, but still things were not going right for them, still the favour of the Lord did not seem to be upon them. It makes a good examination of conscience: do I invite the homeless poor, share my advantages with others? Am I at peace with my family? Do I seek to dominate by the ‘clenched fist’, the wounding word, the put-down that can shrivel someone up? Isaiah is contrasting genuine service of the Lord with the merely exterior practices of religion, the conventional ways in which we may seem to be ‘holy’ people. In fact, however, holiness is all a matter of the heart, and – at any rate in this text – mostly a matter of seeing and serving God in other people. That is the only way our light can really shine in the darkness, and our own wounds be healed over. As in the Beatitudes, God’s demands always have a promise attached.

Question: How would you define holiness?

Second reading: The Secret of Paul’s Success (1 Corinthians 2.1-5)

What was the secret of Paul’s success? At times he seems to us boastful, ‘Take me as your pattern’ (4.17) or ‘Be united in imitating me’ (Phil 3.17). He boasts of his faultless Jewish ancestry: ‘Are they Hebrews? So am I’ (2 Cor 11.22), etc. He claims to have undergone for Christ more sufferings and persecutions than others (2 Cor 12), to have been perfect in the law (Phil 3.6), to have outstripped his contemporaries in his zeal for the law (Ga 1.14). He claims that he speaks in tongues more than any of them, and yet he does not make much of it (1 Cor 14.18). Yet here he insists that he came among the Corinthians in weakness, in fear and great trembling in order to make known the power of the Spirit. In the same way, he will later admit that he holds the treasure of the light of Christ in fragile pots made of earthenware (2 Cor 4.7). There are some wonderful rhetorical passages in Paul, where he exploits to the full the literary and oratorical training he had received, but, in the last analysis, one must admit that his power consists simply in the power of his message and the promises of Christ.

Question: Is Paul conceited or boastful?

Gospel: Salt and Light (Matthew 5.13-16)

Matthew here takes two piquant images from the words of Jesus that he found in Mark’s Gospel and builds them up. Immediately after the Beatitudes, with which he began the Sermon on the Mount, he shows that these Christian attitudes are not just for our own benefit but are to change the world. The first is a warning, the second a promise. Christians are to be salt for the whole world. Imagine a perpetual diet of food without any tang or taste, bland and insipid! This would be the world if Christians did not spread the message of Christ, did not impart to the world the flavour brought by Christ’s message. What would the world be without that message and challenge of the generosity and salvation of Christ which we profess? Yes, of course, much of the same message may come to the world through other great world faiths, but the full challenge and the full promise is in Christ. The same is true for the second image, that of light. Imagine a world of darkness, in which we had to feel our way and are never quite sure of shapes and purposes! And then what a difference occurs when the sun rises over the horizon or the light is switched on. Such is the difference that Christianity – and our Christianity – must make to the world.

Question: How should the Christian set out to be salt and light to today’s world?

Sixth Sunday

First reading: Contrasts (Ecclesiasticus 15.15-20)

A reading from Ecclesiasticus is rare enough for us to remind ourselves of the origin of the book. It is one of the Wisdom Books of the Bible, written towards the end of the Old Testament period, when prophecy had come to an end. The fierce corrections of the prophets and their inspiring promises of coming salvation were no more, and the word of the Lord came in collections of wise sayings to guide conduct, inspired by acute awareness that the Lord was the source of all wisdom. This collection of wisdom was brou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by H.E. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor
• Foreword by the author
• Introduction
• COMMENTARY ON THE READINGS
• ADVENT and christmastide
• Year A
• Year B
• Year C
• LENT and eastertide
• Year A
• Year B
• Year C
• ORDINARY SUNDAYS OF THE YEAR
• Year A
• Year B
• Year C
• SOLEMNITIES WHICH TRUMP SUNDAYS
• Feasts of the Lord and Solemnities
• eCopyright