Catholic lectionary for 7 November 2018

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Philippians, Chapter 2, verses 12-18

¹² to a careful proceeding in the way of salvation, that they be as lights to the wicked world, ¹⁶ and comforts to him their apostle, who is now ready to be offered up to God

¹²Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

¹⁵That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

¹⁶Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

¹⁷Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

Read more:Philippians, Chapter 2

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2:12 Wherefore - Having proposed Christ's example, he exhorts them to secure the salvation which Christ has purchased. As ye have always - Hitherto. Obeyed - Both God, and me his minister.Now in my absence - When ye have not me to instruct, assist, and direct you. Work out your own salvation - Herein let every man aim at his own things. With fear and trembling - With the utmost care and diligence.

2:13 For it is God - God alone, who is with you, though I am not. That worketh in you according to his good pleasure - Not for any merit of yours. Yet his influences are not to supersede, but to encourage, our own efforts. Work out your own salvation - Here is our duty. For it is God that worketh in you - Here is our encouragement. And O, what a glorious encouragement, to have the arm of Omnipotence stretched out for our support and our succour!

2:14 Do all things - Not only without contention, Php 2:3, but evenwithout murmurings and disputings - Which are real, though smaller, hinderances of love.

2:15 That ye may be blameless - Before men. And simple - Before God, aiming at him alone. As the sons of God - The Godof love; acting up to your high character. Unrebukable in the midst of a crooked - Guileful, serpentine, and perverse generation - Such as the bulk of mankind always were. Crooked - By a corruptnature, and yet more perverse by custom and practice.

2:17 Here he begins to treat of the latter clause of Php 1:22.Yea, and if I be offered - Literally, If I be poured out.Upon the sacrifice of your faith - The Philippians, as the other converted heathens, were a sacrifice to God through St. Paul's ministry, Rom 15:16. And as in sacrificing, wine was poured at the foot of the altar, so he was willing that his blood should be poured out. The expression well agrees with that kind of martyrdom by which he was afterwards offered up to God.

2:18 Congratulate me - When I am offered up.

Luke, Chapter 14, verses 25-33

²⁵ Those who will be his disciples, to bear their cross, must make their accounts aforehand lest with shame they revolt from him afterward

²⁵And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

²⁶If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁷And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

²⁸For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

²⁹Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

³⁰Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

³¹Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

³²Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

³³So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 14

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14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father - Comparatively to Christ: yea, so as actually to renounce his field, oxen, wife, all things, and act as if he hated them, when they stand in competition with him. Mat 10:37.

14:28 And which of you intending to build a tower - That is, and whoever of you intends to follow me, let him first seriously weigh these things.

14:31 Another king - Does this mean, the prince of this world?Certainly he has greater numbers on his side. How numerous are his children and servants!

14:33 So - Like this man, who, being afraid to face his enemy, sends to make peace with him, every one who forsaketh not all that he hath -

By withdrawing his affections from all the creatures;
By enjoying them only in and for God, only in such a measure and manner as leads to him;
By hating them all, in the sense above mentioned, cannot be my disciple - But will surely desist from building that tower, neither can he persevere in fighting the good fight of faith.

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NOTES

When speaking of the Kingdom, Jesus never tires of reminding His listeners that they still have to enter it and that this will not happen by itself. For the sake of the Kingdom one must leave everything behind and be ready to take up the cross. These words of the Saviour were perfectly clear: His listeners still remembered how...

When speaking of the Kingdom, Jesus never tires of reminding His listeners that they still have to enter it and that this will not happen by itself. For the sake of the Kingdom one must leave everything behind and be ready to take up the cross. These words of the Saviour were perfectly clear: His listeners still remembered how, a little over a century before the events of the Gospel, during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus in the then independent Judea, those who took part in an uprising against the government and demanded that the authorities strictly observe the norms of the Torah in the country were crucified. The rebels wanted one thing: the Kingdom, the kind they knew about, of course. And for its sake they gave up everything. Their ideas about it bore little resemblance to what Jesus speaks of, but He holds up their determination as an example to His listeners. They truly did leave everything behind.

Not like the characters in Jesus' parable who refuse to come to the feast, for reasons that might seem perfectly reasonable, but still refuse and lose what matters most. Their places are taken by those who have nothing in this world and no reason to decline. Is it a matter of priorities? Yes, of course, priorities too, but not priorities alone. It is no accident that Jesus speaks of a feast, of the first and the last, and of the places that many strive to occupy even at the risk of being driven from them.

The Kingdom is not a place, a structure or a hierarchy. The Kingdom is a state in which one can abide, but which one absolutely cannot, so to speak, fix in place, however much one may wish to do so. The desire to occupy better or worse places comes from this. For in the Kingdom there are, in fact, no good or bad places. There is only one criterion: is a person in his or her own place, in the very place God intended, or in one chosen personally because it seemed more suitable?

This also gives rise to the question: should one go to the feast or to the field just purchased? The wedding feast is a symbol of the Kingdom. If a person does not know which to choose, it means that he does not know what the Kingdom is. If he did know, it would never occur to him to compare the importance of the life he lives with anything he owns. Life is fullness, whereas a purchased field, possessions and even family are merely derivatives of that fullness. What matters here is not to confuse the part with the whole or the principal with the secondary. Only one thing can help us do this: the experience of the true life of the Kingdom, that very life which is salvation.

The Kingdom of God comes into this world, but a person must take a step toward it, for it is like a wedding feast to which everyone is invited, but not everyone...

As we can see, Jesus directly warns each person what the way into the Kingdom costs. And He advises: before you decide to follow Me, weigh everything calmly and soberly...

As we can see, Jesus directly warns each person what the way into the Kingdom costs. And He advises: before you decide to follow Me, weigh everything calmly and soberly. Do you want what I can give you? Are you ready to walk the path you will have to walk? Of course, there is no desire here to frighten anyone or turn anyone away from the way into the Kingdom. But there is an understanding that, once a person has set foot on this path, turning aside from it later, if it remains possible at all, will come with serious spiritual losses, and perhaps not only spiritual ones.

It is no accident that the Savior compares the situation of someone preparing to enter the Christian path with the situation of a person preparing to build a watchtower in his field, or with the situation of a ruler preparing to go to war against a neighbor. In both cases it is better to think everything through before beginning, because failure can leave a person in a position far worse than the one he would have been in if he had abandoned the plan. According to Jesus, the cost of the way is renouncing everything this untransformed world, lying in evil, can give.

It is no accident that the Savior uses the image of the cross. In the Gospel era it was clear to everyone in Judea, since all the inhabitants of the country still remembered the revolt that had taken place earlier, during the years of independence, when the revolt organized by the Pharisaic brotherhood against Alexander Jannaeus was suppressed. In the rebels' judgment, that ruler had pursued a policy completely contrary to the Torah. At that time the participants in the revolt suppressed by the authorities were crucified: a punishment not only agonizing, but also humiliating for any Jew.

Jesus directly warns everyone who wants to follow Him: one must be ready for anything, as the participants in that revolt were ready for anything for the sake of their faith, and even the cross did not frighten them. The point here is not that the Kingdom Jesus brought into the world will have to be established by force, as the participants in the revolt under Alexander Jannaeus wanted to establish it by force.

The point is that, according to the Savior's own word, it is "not of this world." Therefore "this world" will always be hostile to it, not because of nature, which can be transformed and which in the end will be transformed, but because of the evil that entered the world after the fall. This conflict with the forces of evil acting in the world is what makes the cross inevitable for every Christian, in one form or another. But, as we can see, there is no other road into the Kingdom. And each person, of course, decides for himself whether to walk it.

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