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Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, September 4, 2005

First reading, Ezekiel 33:7-9

The Theological Background: God wanted the people of Israel to have every chance to stay on the straight and narrow, turn from their sins, and avoid the destruction threatened by foreign invaders. So God takes a step to ensure that Israel has all it needs to stay morally upright. Most of all, they need a watchman, a human voice to challenge and correct them, so that the responsibility for their fate is only theirs. We'd call that fair; fair to the people if not to the hapless watchman.

But the watchman, the prophet Ezekiel, needs to be impressed with the importance of his duty. No prophet has an easy vocation (See last week's commentary about another prophet's calling), so God always takes pains to bolster the prophets, and in a variety of ways. Here Ezekiel gets straightforward orders assigning responsibility to him and to the people, with no if's, and's or but's tolerated.

Proclaiming It: The meaning of this passage isn't too difficult to discern, but the oral interpretation of it to an unprepared congregation will be challenging. It's hard to proclaim because it's one person talking to a second about the second's relationship to a third person and to a group.

When you proclaim this, imagine you are God talking to the prophet. You love him but you have to lay a heavy burden on his shoulders because you love the people and you're very worried about them. It should sound quite solemn.

Secondly, make every effort to speak slowly and distinctly. While the words are simple, the sentences are complex. Use contrasting tones of voice to distinguish "you" from "him" and "he." If you read this too fast or if you sound too flat, it will be lost on your hearers. Think of how carefully Ezekiel would have spoken his warnings to the wicked, knowing what was at stake!

Second Reading, Romans 13:8-10

The Theological Background: Most of Saint Paul's letters begin with a treatment of doctrinal questions. Then, having established important truths about Christ and our relationship to him, Paul usually writes a "morals" section, an application of the doctrine to the day-to-day behavior of the congregation receiving the letter. In the earlier doctrinal sections of Romans, Paul has written of the Law (by which he means the Law of Moses which the Jews so revered) and its inability to save anyone, no matter how well one keeps the Law. (Click here for a Sunday-by-Sunday survey of this spring and summer's readings from Romans, giving something of an outline of the letter.) In today's passage from the "how-to" section, he seems to be saying, "You still want the law? I'll give you the real law. Love one another. That fulfills the law. Enough said."

Proclaiming It: Read this slowly, and emphasize the word love every time it occurs. There's a long sentence in the middle that might tie your tongue if you haven't practiced. So practice. Read it aloud. Several times. Do it alone if it might embarrass you, or, better, before a small "congregation" like a family member or a friend.
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."
Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group. Father Roger Karban's 1999 syndicated column about these readings,

and his 2002 column

and
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.
This site keeps its back issues posted for only about eight weeks.

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.

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Last modified: Thu Aug 18 18:42:20 CDT 2005