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Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, July 20, 2008 |
The Historical Situation: About a century before the birth of Jesus, a learned and faithful Jew assessed the situation for Jews in the great cosmopolitan city Alexandria in Egypt. Many Jews there had "assimilated" into the dominant pagan culture. They and native pagans sometimes ridiculed practicing Jews, so our sage wrote a book of Wisdom, to bolster the faith of his friends. (The Church cites this book often in the Lectionary, so this introduction may be familiar to users of Lector's Notes.) One of the author's overall goals is to remind his fellow Jews of their ancient heritage, and to emphasize God's providence for these people throughout their history.
Today's verses come from a the section of the book, Wisdom, 11:17-12:27, called "A digression on God's mercy." And it really does digress. But one solid point it makes is that this God (and, it is implied, unlike all other gods) is so powerful and wise that he need not be vengeful and quick to punish. This God can afford to let his enemies live, for they can never prevail, and given time, might repent. That's the admirable God addressed in our passage today.
Proclaiming It: This reading is in the second person, addressed by the speaker to God. That's unusual among our readings. It will catch the congregation unawares, unless you begin your proclamation carefully. Speak the first sentence slowly, emphasizing the words "god" and "you" in the first line. The final clause of the first sentence means "God, you don't have to prove to anyone that what you do is fair."
Our second sentence ("... your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.") captures most clearly the point of the whole passage (and the whole digression), so state it slowly and clearly. Pause before the final sentence, where the emphasis changes from the power of God to the lessons people should draw from dealing with such a God.
Proclaiming It: To prepare to read this, let yourself experience the lesson taught here. That is, ask the Spirit to fill your heart with gratitude.
In your actual proclamation, try to answer the question, "What's one important thing for which we need the help of God's Spirit?" The answer is "How to pray as we ought." Let your listeners hear the accent on "pray." And in the last sentence, show how the Spirit fulfills this need by emphasizing the synonym for "pray," "intercedes."
Extra! Each Sunday passage from Romans in context: Click here to see a table summarizing the readings from Romans from the 9th to the 24th Sundays of Ordinary Time, this year.
| Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular.
Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date." | ||
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Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group
Dan covers two possible first readings, Wisdom (of Solomon) 12:13, 16-19 and Isaiah 44:6-8, Psalm 86:11-17, and for second reading today, Romans 8:12-25, plus Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. See Dan's notes for Romans 8:26-39 (including the verses of this Sunday's Catholic selection) on his page for next Sunday. |
From the heartland of the U.S.A., two priest-columnists, both learned and wise, with a great common touch: Father Roger Karban's syndicated column about these readings, from 2002, and Father Karban's 2005 column The 2002 column of Jesuit Father Francis X. Cleary, From the site of the Saint Louis Review. | |
| The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes. |
Saint Louis University's excellent new liturgy site.
Most welcome here are Reginald Fuller's commentaries. (Caveat lector as of June 28, 2008. Lector's Notes' author is speculating about the exact future URL of SLU's pages for this Sunday, since they're not yet posted. If you get a 404 Not Found, try here). | |
The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.