The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us to seek direction for our actions through prayer and awareness of the fullness of life in choosing the narrow gate that restricts distraction from our mission.
The reading from the Second Book of Kings relates Hezekiah’s prayer and Sennacherib’s defeat and death.
Psalm 48 praises The Glory and Strength of Zion.
* [Psalm 48] A Zion hymn, praising the holy city as the invincible dwelling place of God. Unconquerable, it is an apt symbol of God who has defeated all enemies. After seven epithets describing the city (Ps 48:2–3), the Psalm describes the victory by the Divine Warrior over hostile kings (Ps 48:4–8). The second half proclaims the dominion of the God of Zion over all the earth (Ps 48:9–12) and invites pilgrims to announce that God is eternally invincible like Zion itself (Ps 48:13–14). (Psalms, PSALM 48 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew teaches about profaning the Holy, the Golden Rule and the Narrow Gate.
* [7:6] Dogs and swine were Jewish terms of contempt for Gentiles. This saying may originally have derived from a Jewish Christian community opposed to preaching the gospel (what is holy, pearls) to Gentiles. In the light of Mt 28:19 that can hardly be Matthew’s meaning. He may have taken the saying as applying to a Christian dealing with an obstinately impenitent fellow Christian (Mt 18:17).
* [7:9–10] There is a resemblance between a stone and a round loaf of bread and between a serpent and the scaleless fish called barbut.
* [7:12] See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth century as the “Golden Rule,” is found in both positive and negative form in pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist.
* [7:13–28] The final section of the discourse is composed of a series of antitheses, contrasting two kinds of life within the Christian community, that of those who obey the words of Jesus and that of those who do not. Most of the sayings are from Q and are found also in Luke. (Matthew, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB, n.d.)
Tom Shanaham, S.J. (2006) comments that chapters 5 through 7, contain some key statements of Jesus given for those who would answer the call to discipleship, including the Beatitudes and the Our Father prayer. Yet the “sermon” itself is really a series of Jesus’ statements most likely said at various times during Jesus’ public life and covering a wide variety of topics.
One way of understanding the “sermon on the mount” is to see it as Jesus’ way of inviting us to incorporate into our lives the way that Jesus wants us to live so that we can “enter through the narrow gate” (of heaven). Today’s gospel reading gets our attention as it reminds us that indeed the gate is narrow and “those that find it are few!”
Am I one of those “few?” I’m afraid that I will never know for certain the answer to this most pressing question. But I do have some control in the matter. That control comes from continually taking seriously the demands of treating others as I would wish to be treated.
Today’s gospel reading has with it the call (demand?) to look outside of myself towards others and the way that I am towards them, the way that I treat them. My prayer is that I can accept this call and live it out, knowing that hearing the call may be the beginning of opening myself to the work of Jesus in my heart and in my actions especially towards others. (Shanaham, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “Unreadiness to receive Godly teaching,” by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.
"Now in this precept we are forbidden to give a holy thing to dogs or to cast pearls before swine. We must diligently seek to determine the gravity of these words: holy, pearls, dogs and swine. A holy thing is whatever it would be impious to profane or tear apart. Even a fruitless attempt to do so makes one already guilty of such impiety, though the holy thing may by its very nature remain inviolable and indestructible. Pearls signify all spiritual things that are worthy of being highly prized. Because these things lie hidden in secret, it is as though they were being drawn up from the deep. Because they are found in the wrappings of allegories, it is as though they were contained within shells that have been opened.(1) It is clear therefore that one and the same thing can be called both a holy thing and a pearl. It can be called a holy thing because it ought not to be destroyed and a pearl because it ought not to be despised. One tries to destroy what one does not wish to leave intact. One despises what is deemed worthless, as if beneath him. Hence, whatever is despised is said to be trampled under foot... Thus we may rightly understand that these words (dogs and swine) are now used to designate respectively those who assail the truth and those who resist it." (excerpt from SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.20.68-69)
(1) The interpretive task is to crack through the shell of the language to its inner spiritual meaning. (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on 2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-36 comments that psychological warfare is also the preferred strategy of our enemy, the devil. Using many of the same tactics that Sennacherib used, he taunts us for trusting in the Lord. He tries to make us think that God isn’t who he says he is, thus planting doubts in our minds that the Lord will save us. He especially tries to persuade us that we should just give in to temptation because resisting it is simply futile.
So be on your guard! When you detect a lie, counter it with God’s truths. Then turn to the Lord and pray in his presence, as the great King Hezekiah did. God will help you stand firm against the lies as well as assure you of his great love for you. He alone is “God over all the kingdoms of the earth” (2 Kings 19:15)—more powerful than any enemy—and he will always protect you!
“Lord, I turn to you in my need. Deliver me from every evil.” (Meditation on 2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-36, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the response of God to the prayer of Hezekiah concerning the threat from the Assyrian army of Sennacherib. We need to be aware of possible mistreatment of what is holy by people who are not yet ready to accept and protect our understanding. Friar Jude reminds us that passing through the narrow gate requires discipline to say no to things that lead us away.
Barbara Holmes comments that communal lament opens the possibility for healing stories to be told. Through the voice of educator Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955), Holmes points to contemporary versions of “griots,” traveling oral historians and storytellers from West Africa.
The call for lament is not an invitation to moping or sadness. It is a call for ritual reorientation. With or without tears, lament is a communal act of cosmological engagement. Ancestors on the continent of Africa knew this…. There are griots among you in this new generation. They are poets, drummers, preachers, and singers. They are found in every walk of life, and they are waiting to write and share the stories that defy the conspiracy of silence that pervades this present age. (Holmes, n.d.)
We invoke the Holy Spirit to guide us to make choices that value the sanctity of people and the elements that assist in connecting us to the Presence of God as we seek the “narrow gate” on our journey.
References
Holmes, B. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/lament-is-healing/
Matthew, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/7?6
Meditation on 2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-36. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/06/25/1007588/
Psalms, PSALM 48 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/48?2
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Do Not Throw Your Pearls before Swine. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=jun25
Shanaham, T. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/062524.html
2 Kings, CHAPTER 19 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2kings/19?9
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