Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
Protestants who are accustomed to reading the King James or Authorized Version of the Bible often ask why Catholic versions of the Scriptures include the Book of Wisdom.
The King James version omits it, because Wisdom was one of several Old Testament books discounted by the biblical scholars who prepared the version commissioned by King James I of England and presented in 1611.
The Catholic Church long before 1611 taught that Wisdom indeed is divinely inspired. This book provides this weekend’s first reading.
Wisdom was written amid cultural warfare in which the Jews fought for their identity. Many had left the Holy Land to find better conditions elsewhere. Living elsewhere meant that they were amid pagans.
These pagans had all the advantages and were firmly in control. Ignoring all these advantages was not easy. Jewish parents especially had to inspire their children, understandably impressed by the dazzle of the pagan world, to hold fast to the seemingly rigid demands of the religion of their forebears. The wisdom literature of the Old Testament, including the Book of Wisdom, developed as part of this effort to defend, explain and perpetuate the ancient beliefs of the chosen people.
More directly about this first reading for Mass this weekend, Wisdom clearly illustrates the struggle between God and human evil which Jews living in a pagan cultural context would have experienced on a daily basis. Seen from a Christian perspective, this passage can also be understood as prophetic of the opposition that Christ would experience during his public ministry.
The Epistle of St. James offers us the second reading. This clear and frank message speaks of those human activities that are evil at root and in expression. The passage includes a warning that hardness of heart and wicked intentions lead humans to unholy and destructive behavior.
St. Mark’s Gospel supplies the last reading. Jesus foretells his crucifixion, forecasting being seized and delivered to evil people. He also declares that he will rise from the dead three days after his crucifixion. He will prevail!
It is important to note that in this reading, as so often in all the four Gospels, Jesus gathers the Apostles as special students, especially called and personally commissioned to build the Church.
They still are humans, however, vulnerable to human pettiness and sin. Reminding them to be servants to all, Jesus calls them to humility and to live in the model that he has set.
In this model will be their security.
Reflection
The Church has called us to discipleship in the biblical readings at Mass these weeks. It has not led us down a primrose path. Last weekend, it called us to ponder, celebrate and connect with the cross, bluntly saying that to follow Christ truly, we must walk the path through a hostile world to our own Calvary.
In this weekend’s first reading from Wisdom, the Church again says that discipleship is not easy. The world stands utterly opposite Jesus. We cannot stand midway between Christ and evil. We must choose one or the other.
If we choose evil, as the epistle recalls, we invite our destruction.
Jesus never forsakes us. He is with us in the teachings of the Apostles, whom the Lord commissioned to continue the work of salvation. In their teachings, applied even now in the Church, we hear Jesus. He is with us in the sacraments, also conveyed to us through the Apostles.
Jesus does not thunder into our hearts and homes. We must welcome the merciful, life-giving, crucified Savior. The first step in this process is to acquire the humility to know who we are and what we need. We are humans, with all the dignity and the limitations involved. We need God, always. We cannot save ourselves alone. †