Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS (Cycle C)
Readings:
Ezekiel 34:11-16
Psalm 23:1-6
Romans 5:5b-11
Luke 15:3-7
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
In the Middle Ages, Roman Catholics began observing this solemnity on the third Friday after Pentecost to remember and venerate the precious wounds of Christ. It became an echo of Good Friday as a day of devotion to the Passion of Christ in which the faithful remembered Jesus's suffering to help them come to terms with their sufferings. St. Gertrude the Great, who lived in the 13th century, had a vision of Jesus appearing to her the same way He had revealed Himself to St. Thomas the Apostle (Jn 20:24-29). Jesus showed St. Gertrude His wounds, and He taught her about His love, which she said was pouring forth from His Sacred Heart. In the 17th century, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque testified that, in a vision, Christ chose her to spread the devotion to His Sacred Heart. St. John Eudes preached about the loving heart of Jesus and composed a liturgy for the Feast of the Sacred Heart. In 1765, Pope Clement XIII approved this devotion and set the date of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Church's calendar. See St. Bonaventure's reflections on this solemnity.
CCC 2669: "The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins...."
The Theme of the Readings: The Divine Shepherd
In the First Reading, God continues His covenant lawsuit
against the failed leaders of the Sinai Covenant who do not rightly "shepherd"
the flock of God's people. After listing the failures of the past "shepherds"
of Israel and His judgment to take away their power to rule over His people,
God contrasts each abuse with His remedy with the promise that one day He will
come to shepherd His people.
The Psalm Reading is one of the best-loved of the collection of the psalms. The psalmist describes his intimate relationship with his Lord, who guides him like a loving shepherd tends his sheep, protecting him from his enemies and providing for his every need. He is confident that when his life on earth ends, he will "dwell in the house of the Lord" forever.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds the Roman Christians that the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit is a manifestation distinctive to the New Covenant Church and not part of the old covenant order. He tells them that the Holy Spirit is He who dwells in the circumcised heart of New Covenant believers from the moment of baptism and transforms the believer to become a true child in the family of God.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus compares God the Son and a shepherd and lost sheep and sinners. The Lord God cares about all the sheep in the flock of His covenant people, and when one becomes lost, like a lost sinner, He, like any good shepherd, makes every effort to return that one to the flock. And when that one sinner is restored to the covenant community, God rejoices in his restoration.
Ezekiel 34:11-16 ~ I Will Tend My Sheep
11 "For the Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I myself shall
take care of my flock and look after it. 12 As a shepherd looks
after his flock when he is with his scattered sheep, so shall I look after my
sheep. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered on the day of
clouds and darkness. 13 I shall bring them back from the peoples where they
are; I shall gather them back from the countries and bring them back to their
own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and
in all the inhabited parts of the country. 14 I shall feed them in good
pasturage; the highest mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There
they will rest in good grazing grounds; they will browse in rich pastures on
the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself shall pasture my sheep, I myself shall give
them rest, declares the Lord Yahweh. 16 I shall look for the lost one, bring
back the stray, bandage the injured and make the sick strong. I shall watch
over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them. (NJB)
Yahweh continues His covenant lawsuit against the failed leaders of the Sinai Covenant who do not rightly "shepherd" the flock of God's people. After listing the failures of past "shepherds" of Israel and His judgment to take away their power to rule over His people in Ezekiel 34:1-10, God contrasts each abuse with His remedy (Ez 34:11-16). Yahweh begins His response to the failed shepherds with His promise that "I Myself" will come to "look after and tend my sheep" (repeated three times in Ez 34:11, 15 twice, and 20). Yahweh fulfilled that prophecy in the Incarnation of God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth: son of David, son of Abraham (Mt 1:1). God Himself came as the heir of the eternal Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:16; 23:5; 2 Chr 13:5; Sir 45:25; 47:11/13 Lk 1:32-33) to restore His people and to seek out those lost in the darkness of sin. Jesus announced to the people that He is the Davidic "Good Shepherd" who came according to prophecy (Jn 10:1-18).
In His ministry, Jesus fulfilled Ezekiel's prophecy as "God myself" who "came against" the failed shepherds of Israel and fulfilled God's remedy for the failure of the people's past rulers (see Is 26:19; 29:18-24; 61:1-2 and Mt 11:4-6; 15:31; 23:1-36; Lk 1:32; 4:16-21). During the years of His ministry, Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah. He cured the sick, healed the blind and the disabled, and raised the dead. He tended to the brokenhearted, forgiving their sins and restoring the old Israel in preparation for His Kingdom of the universal Church. At the same time, He "came against" (Ez 34:10) the elders, chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees for their abuses in seven curse judgments against the Old Covenant hierarchy (Mt 23:1-36). God came Himself to "shepherd them rightly" (Ez 34:16) by judging their abuse and giving them a righteous Davidic king to lead them in God the Son.
Psalm 23:1-6 ~ The Lord is My Shepherd
Response: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
(A psalm of David). 1b The LORD is my shepherd;
there is nothing I lack.
2 In green pastures he makes me lie down;
to still waters he leads me;
3 he restores my soul.
Response:
He guides me along right paths
for the sake of his name.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff comfort me.
Response:
5 You set a table before me in front of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil my cup overflows.
Response:
6 Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life;
I will dwell in the house of the LORD for endless days.
Response:
(NABRE)
This is one of the best known and most loved of the psalms. We pray this psalm at Mass on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Year C, and on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year A.
In contrast to Psalm 22, which is a lament over what seems to be God's distance from His people, this psalm portrays God as intimately involved in the psalmist in every moment of his life. The LORD [Yahweh] guides the psalmist like a loving shepherd guides his sheep, looking after all his needs and being mindful of his strengths and fears. He anoints the psalmist and lavishes an abundance of goodness and mercy on him as God guides him to his ultimate destination, where he will live in "the house of the LORD" forever.
You anoint my head with oil my cup overflows.
In the Old Testament, God anointed certain persons to
special service, including prophets (1 Kng 19:16; Is 61:1), priests (Ex 28:41;
29:7; Lev 6:13), and kings (1 Sam 10:1; 16:1; 2 Sam 2:4; 1 Kng 1:34). In the
New Covenant in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit anoints believers to new life in
the Sacrament of Baptism, to influse baptized believers with the strength of
His spirit to carry forth the Gospel of salvation in the Sacrament of
Confirmation, in the Sacrament of Anointing to restore physical and spiritual
health, and to elevate men of the ministerial priesthood to serve as Christ's representatives
in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. In the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation,
and Holy Orders, the anointing signifies the infusion of the grace of the Holy
Spirit together with the imprint of a seal or indelible mark on the soul and,
for this reason, may be received only once (CCC 1293, 1303-1305).
Shepherd imagery frequently appears in the Bible as an agent of God who faithfully guides or rules over the covenant people. See the chart, "The Symbolic Images of the Prophets." It is one of the metaphors Jesus applies to Himself, especially in His "Good Shepherd Discourse" in John 10:11-16.
Romans 5:5b-11 ~ God Proves His Love for Us
5b because the love of God has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For Christ, while
we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. 7 Indeed,
only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good
person, one might even find courage to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in
that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 9
How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved
through him from the wrath. 10 Indeed, if, while we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much
more once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.11
Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have now received reconciliation.(NABRE)
5b because the love of God has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
This line evokes the powerful visual image of life-giving
water being poured upon humanity as prophesized in Isaiah 44:3 and fulfilled at
the second great Pentecost in the Upper Room in AD 30. It also recalls what
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:13-14 and called out in the Jerusalem
Temple on the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7:38-39:
But this visual image also looks forward to the eschatological event of the outpouring of the Spirit prophesied in Ezekiel 47:1-12 and the vision given to St. John in Revelation 22:1-5, a vision St. John received years after Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome.
Paul's point is to remind the Romans that the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit was a manifestation distinctive to the New Covenant Church and not part of the old covenant order. The Holy Spirit is He who dwells in the circumcised heart of New Covenant believers from the moment of baptism and transforms the believer from a child in the worldly family of Satan to become a true child in the family of God. That is the Holy Spirit's unique relationship to the New Covenant Church and New Covenant believers (see John 15:26; 16:5-15; Romans 8:8-11; 14-16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:14).
In Romans 5:6-8, Paul speaks of the proof of God's love. The indisputable evidence of that love is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Paul identifies the condition of the unjustified person as one incapable of doing anything on his own to achieve righteousness in the sight of God apart from Jesus Christ.
God, in His infinite love, does for us what we could not do for ourselves, and God took action to bring about humanity's hope of salvation. That action is God the Son's death followed by His glorious resurrection in which God's love has been manifested, as St. John wrote in his First Letter:
9 How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath [of God].
Paul returns to the theme of retribution that he first
raised in Romans 1:18, where he wrote: The retribution of God from heaven is
being revealed against the ungodliness and injustice of human beings who in
their injustice hold back the truth. In Romans 4:25, Paul wrote that our
justification was ascribed to Christ's Resurrection, but now he writes that it
is attributed to the shedding of His precious blood and His death. Paul does
not separate the saving work of Jesus into categories: His Passion, death, and
Resurrection are all one saving act applied to the salvation of humanity. This
saving act saved us from God's retribution/wrath.
In verse 9, Paul refers to another salvation beyond justification by Jesus's death. In addition to our initial justification through Jesus's Passion, death, and Resurrection applied to our baptism into the family of God, a great favor or grace of justification will be manifested to the believer in the eschatological salvation that is to come in the Final Judgment (CCC 1038-1041). Again we have evidence that justification is not only a state but an ongoing process, just as salvation is a continuing process to be consummated at the end of time as we know it when we will face the retribution of God in the Final Judgment. It is an event the faithful Christian does not need to fear, as Paul assures us in the next verse. See the endnote on justification at the end of the lesson.
10 Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God through the death of his Son, how much more once reconciled, will we be
saved by his life.
But when were we enemies of God? See Romans 5:8; 8:7; and
Genesis 3:15. As a sinner, humankind is not just "weak" or "godless" but, according
to Genesis 3:15, has made themselves a "seed of the serpent." God told the
serpent in Genesis 3:15: "I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head and you will strike his
heel." The point is that those in sin become an enemy of God, and the death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ become the only means by which sinners are
reconciled with God (Acts 4:12). This is another way of repeating what Paul
stated in Romans 5:1 when he wrote that Christians were "at peace" with God
because reconciliation restores fellowship and intimacy with God and ends the
alienation of sin and rebellion.
So, how are we saved by the Resurrected life of God the Son? Another effect of justification is a share in the risen life of God the Son. Although justification and reconciliation through the forgiveness of original sin happened when we came into the family of God through our Baptism and will continue as we are in communion with Him through the Sacraments, salvation in its fullest sense is still to be achieved in its future dimension. But as we journey toward salvation, we anticipate that gift of salvation by knowing it is rooted in sharing the life of the glorified Christ as His life is continually communicated to us in the Sacraments of our faith as we continue on our journey to reach the goal of eternal life.
11 Not only that, but we also boast of God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Paul also used the word "boast" in 5:2 and 3: through
whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we
boast in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we even boast of our
afflication, knowing that afflication produces endurance... Paul used this
expression of exuberance or "boasting," kauchaomai [kow-khah'-om-ahee],
three times in Romans 5:2, 3, and 11, and the same word a total of five times
if we count Romans 2:17 and 23. In previous passages in the letter, "boasting" appears
in the negative, but there is a difference now in chapter 5.
In the other passages, "boasting" concerned our own initiative, but in this context, it is of God that we "boast." The effect of the Christian's justification in faith, which is a gift from God, is that the Christian can boast of God Himself in whom, through His love, salvation is now guaranteed. This is in contrast to the covenant believer's condition before the atoning work of Christ, where one stood in bondage to sin and in fear of God's retribution. But now, having experienced God's infinite love in what Jesus the Messiah accomplished for humanity through His sacrificial death and Resurrection, one can boast of God's great love for us! As St. John wrote in his First Letter, 17 In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:17-19; also see 1 Corinthians 1:31; Jeremiah 9:22-23). Therefore, have confidence and "boast" concerning Christ's great love for us because His sacrifice justified us (made us right) with God and continues to justify us through the life of Christ in the Eucharist on our journey to eternal salvation.
Luke 15:3-7 ~ Rejoice Because I Have Found My Lost Sheep (NABRE)
3 So to them he addressed this parable. 4 "What man among
you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the
ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 And
when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy 6 and upon his
arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice
with me because I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance." (NABRE)
Luke 15:1-3 sets the stage for this parable. Jesus was teaching the crowds of Jews who had come to hear Him preach and to see Him work miracles. Tax collectors (who served the Roman authorities and were despised by the common people) and other sinners were drawing near to hear Him. Also in the crowd were Pharisees (the most influential religious party in Judea) and the scribes (the teachers of the Law) were high-status members of Jewish society who considered themselves to be better than the common sinners because they were among the "righteous." They interpreted the Scriptures and the Law very rigidly, often neglecting to follow the example of God's mercy and justice (Lk 11:39-52). They criticized Jesus for His interaction with what they considered to be the ritually unclean dregs of society.
Jews were expected to keep themselves ritually clean and fit for worship by avoiding anything that might transmit ritual uncleanness. The Pharisees saw themselves as "separated" (meaning of the word "Pharisee"), and unlike those, they saw as "unclean" sinners not fit to enter the Temple and offer God sacrifice and worship. The tax collectors and sinners who were drawing near to hear Jesus and the Pharisees who began to complain are representative of groups one and two in the Parable of the Great Feast (the previous parable in Luke 14:15-24). They are at the center of Jesus's teaching. The Pharisees' complaint in Luke 15:2, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them, is a repeat of their challenge to Jesus in Luke 5:30 when they questioned Him by saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus's parable used the symbolic imagery of domesticated animals, another of the symbolic images of the Old Testament prophets (see the chart Symbolic Images of the Old Testament Prophets). In Old Testament imagery, God is the Shepherd of the "flock" that represents His covenant people. One of the best examples of this imagery in the Old Testament appears in Ezekiel chapter 34, part of which appears in the First Reading. In that passage, God promised to shepherd His people and restore them to Himself: For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands (Ez 34:11-13a, NJB). It was in that same passage that God declared: I will appoint one shepherd over them to pasture them, my servant David; he shall pasture them and be their shepherd. I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I Yahweh, have spoken (Ez 34:23-24, NJB). Since this prophecy was made in the 6th century BC and King David lived from the late 11th century to the early 10th century BC, the prophecy must refer to a Davidic descendant.
Jesus fulfilled Ezekiel's prophecy of the Davidic prince God would send to "shepherd" His people. Jesus spoke of His mission symbolically this way in Matthew 10:6, 15:24, and John 10:11-16. He is the son of David and the "Myself" of Ezekiel's prophecy, who came to gather back the lost sheep of Israel. He is the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:11-16) who lays down His life for His sheep.
| Symbolic Imagery in Jesus' Parable of the Lost Sheep (Lk 15:1-7) | |
| The lost sheep | Sinners |
| The sheepfold | The covenant community of the Church |
| The shepherd | Jesus Christ who went in search of the "lost sheep" of the house of Israel* |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013 | |
* see Matthew 10:6; 15:24
Notice the comparison Jesus makes between God the Son and a shepherd and between the lost sheep and sinners. God cares about all the sheep in His flock, and when one becomes lost, like a lost sinner, God, like any good shepherd, makes every effort to return that one to the fold. And when that one sinner is restored to the "fold" of the covenant community, God rejoices in his restoration.
7 I tell you,
in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
There is already joy over the others who are saved, but the
salvation of every lost sinner is a victory for the Kingdom in which all the
flock can rejoice (CCC 545). The purpose of Jesus's Passion was to sacrifice
His life for sinners to justify them before God.
Endnote:
Justification: "The process of a sinner becoming
justified or made right with God. As defined by the Council of Trent,
'Justification is the change from the condition in which a person is born as a
child of the first Adam into a state of grace and adoption among the children
of God through the Second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior" (Denzinger
1524).
On the negative side, justification is a genuine removal of sin and not merely having one's sins ignored or no longer held against the sinner by God. On the positive side, it is the supernatural sanctification and renewal of a person who thus becomes holy and pleasing to God and an heir of heaven. The Catholic Church identified five elements of justification, which collectively define its whole meaning. The primary purpose of justification is the honor of God the Father and Son; its secondary purpose is the eternal life of humankind. The principal efficient cause or agent is the mercy of God; the leading instrumental cause is the Sacrament of Baptism, which is called the "sacrament of faith" to spell out the necessity of faith for salvation. And that which constitutes justification or its essence is the justice of God, not by which He is just Himself, but by which He makes us just, namely sanctifying grace. Depending on the sins from which a person is to be delivered, there are different kinds of justification. An infant is justified by baptism and the faith of the one who requests or confers the sacrament. Adults are justified by personal faith and sorrow for sin resulting in submitting to the Sacrament of Baptism and receiving forgiveness of all sins through God's perfect love. Adults who have sinned gravely after being justified can receive justification by sacramental absolution or perfect contrition for their sins in the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation.
Justifying grace: "The grace by which a person is restored to God's friendship, either for the first time, as in baptism, or after baptism, as in the sacrament of penance (Etymology: Latin = justus, 'just' + facere, to make, do: justificatio)." Catholic Dictionary p. 214-15
| Justification as a past event | Justification as a present event | Justification as a future event |
| Romans 5:1-2 | James 2:24 | Romans 2:13 |
| Romans 5:9 | Romans 3:28 | Romans 3:20 |
| 1 Corinthians 6:11 | Galatians 2:16, 17 | Galatians 5:5 |
Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates
Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Ezekiel 34:11-16 (CCC 754*)
Romans 5:8 (CCC 604); 5:10 (CCC 603, 1825)
The Heart of Christ worthy of adoration (CCC 2669)
God's mercy (CCC 210*, 211*, 604*)
Christ's love for all (CCC 430*, 478*, 545*, 589*, 1365*, 1439*, 1825*, 1846*)
The Church was born from the pierced side of Christ (CCC 766*, 1225*)
Christ's love moves our hearts (CCC 1432*, 2100*)
Justification:
Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 www.AgapeBibleStudy.com