Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle A)
Readings:
Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13
Psalm 146:6c-10
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12a
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), 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).
The two Testaments reveal God's divine plan for humanity; therefore, 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)
The Theme of the Readings: The Discipleship of the Faithful
Remnant
In the First Reading, God's prophet, Zephaniah, called the
covenant people to repentance. He reminded the Israelites that the threat of
Yahweh's "Day of Judgment" did not preclude the hope of conversion and the
salvation of the humble who submitted themselves to God. The Bible often
mentions the humble and oppressed poor of the earth and identifies them by the
Hebrew word aniyyim. In Zephaniah's message, like Jesus's teaching in
the Beatitudes (Gospel Reading), the identity of covenant members who are humble
and obedient assumes a moral and eschatological significance. They possess the spiritual
attributes in which a professing believer submits to the will of God and obediently
follows His commands, persevering in hardships to remain God's "faithful
remnant."
Our Responsorial Psalm is the first psalm of the third section of the Hallel ("praise God") Psalms, 146-150. The priests and the congregation recited this psalm in the morning liturgical service seven days a week in the Jerusalem Temple. The psalm beings with "my God," referring to the God of Israel, and concludes with "your God, O Zion," referring to the Old Covenant Church and the faithful who worship God and proclaim His holy name to all nations throughout all generations.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul told the church at Corinth that God calls us to discipleship and gives each one who answers the call a vocation. He emphasizes that the initiative lies with God, telling them three times that He chose them and did not base His choice on human standards of wisdom or status. Paul reminds the Corinthians that God is the source of their life in Christ Jesus, and the response to God's call makes a person a member of Christ's Body through the Sacrament of Baptism. And, if a disciple is humble in submitting himself to the gift of God's grace, they will gradually become more and more Christ-like. Therefore, we shouldn't boast of our works on behalf of Christ because our good deeds result from Christ working through us.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus teaches us the blessings of the Beatitudes, the spiritual attributes for everyone who answers God's call to be Jesus Christ's disciple. Like the passage in the First Reading, the Beatitudes have a spiritual message and an eschatological fulfillment. They promise eternal blessedness and salvation but not in this world. The eternal nature of the promised blessings of the Beatitudes was not possible under the sacramental system of the Old Covenant Church. The Law of Moses could only identify sin but could not promise everlasting salvation (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #1716-1724; 1961-64). The Beatitudes are the blueprint for a radically transformed life in the Spirit of God. Attaining the perfection of each of the Beatitudes is a step forward on the road to eternal salvation.
Throughout salvation history, there has always been a remnant of God's covenant people who have persevered in faith and obedience to maintain their covenant relationship with the LORD. Furthermore, the faithful remnant always provided a model of behavior for their generation in submitting their lives to God in humility and poverty of spirit. These attributes do not refer to social status or material wealth but to the inner qualities in which a person humbly submits to God's sovereign authority over their life and admits to "poverty of spirit" (in contrast to a proud and willful spirit) that they love God above all else.
The Virgin Mary identified herself among the humble poor with these same spiritual attributes in her canticle of praise, the Magnificat. So likewise, Jesus included these spiritual goals in the Beatitudes (this Sunday's Gospel reading) and identified Himself with them when He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves (Mt 11:29). Through the discipleship of the faithful remnant in every generation, the Church, in the history of the Old Covenant people of God and today in the New Covenant Kingdom of the Jesus Christ, persists in fulfilling her mission.
The First Reading Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 ~ The Preservation
of the Faithful Remnant of Israel
2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth, who have
observed his law; seek justice, seek humility; perhaps you may be sheltered on
the day of the LORD's anger. [...] 3:12 But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD, the
remnant of Israel. 13 They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; nor shall there
be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue; they shall pasture and couch their
flocks with none to disturb them.
The prophet Zephaniah served the Lord in his prophetic ministry during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC), the king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and a descendant of King David. Zephaniah's message was probably delivered during the early years of the young king's reign in c 640-630 BC when Josiah was still in his minority and before he was old enough to initiate his religious reforms. Unfortunately, his sons were not faithful to Yahweh. They led the people of the Kingdom of Judah into apostasy from the covenant, resulting in God's divine judgment in the form of the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 587/6 BC.
The first part of Zephaniah's passage contains a warning of God's inevitable coming "on the "Day of the LORD's [Yahweh's] anger" (2:3). The prophet calls the "humble of the earth, who have observed God's law" to seek justice and find shelter in Him. The Bible often mentions the "humble" and "oppressed/afflicted" of the earth and identifies them by the Hebrew word aniyyim. They are the poor with no social status or way of defending themselves. In their distress, they continually cry out to God for justice, and in the Law of the Sinai Covenant, provisions were made for their material needs and securing their civil justice (Ex 22:20-26; Lev 19:9-10, 13; Dt 24:10-15). The LORD promises, through His prophet, that He has made provisions for the salvation of a faithful remnant who:
In Zephaniah's passage, like Jesus's teaching in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:2-12), humility and poverty, in the sense of the Hebrew word aniyyim, assume a moral and eschatological significance. The humble and the oppressed aniyyim are those Israelites who possess the spiritual attributes of a professing believer who submits to the will of God and is obedient to His commands. In Zephaniah 3:12-13, God promises to preserve a faithful remnant of the spiritual aniyyim to be the heart of the Old Covenant Church and the center of Israel's promised restoration. God promises to guide and protect His faithful remnant as a sign of hope for preserving Israel as a covenant people. This is the same way God preserves a faithful remnant to be the heart of the New Covenant Church.
Before Pope Benedict XVI retired, he was asked by a journalist how concerned he was that so many Catholics were no longer attending Mass or being obedient to the Church's teachings. He responded that he was not concerned because God has always preserved a "faithful remnant," and it is through the "faithful remnant" that the Catholic Church will preserve in faith until the return of the Redeemer Messiah, Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to strive to be that "faithful remnant."
Responsorial Psalm 146:6c-10 ~ God Protects the Poor and
Oppressed
The response is: "Blessed are the poor in spirit; the
kingdom of heaven is theirs!" or "Alleluia."
6c The LORD keeps faith forever, 7 secures justice for
the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets captives free.
Response:
8 The LORD gives sight to the blind; the LORD raises up
those who are bowed down. 9 The LORD loves the just; the LORD protects strangers.
Response:
The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains, but the
way of the wicked he thwarts. 10 The LORD shall reign forever; your God, O
Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
Response:
Psalm 146 is the first of the third section of Hallel ("praise God"), psalms in 146-150. The priests and the congregation recited them in the morning liturgical service seven days a week in the Jerusalem Temple. The faithful also repeated the same psalms during their private, individual morning prayer if they did not attend the morning worship service at the Temple.
In Psalm 146, the faithful praised God and proclaimed no other source of strength for the poor and oppressed except the merciful God of Israel. Only the LORD God, not mortal humans, could be trusted to help the poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed, as He had provided for them and protected them in His laws (Ex 22:20-26; Lev 19:9-10, 13; Dt 24:10-15). Moreover, God showed them His mercy in every need (verses 7-9).
The psalms beings with "my God" in verse 2, the God of Israel (verse 5), and concludes with "your God, O Zion." "Zion" refers to the faithful and obedient people of the Old Covenant Church who worship Yahweh and proclaim His name to all nations throughout all generations. Finally, the psalm concludes with the affirmation in Hebrew Halleluyah! Which means "praise God, Yah (Yahweh)."
In the sacrifice of the Mass, we also recite psalms of praise to God in our daily liturgy, praising our Lord for His mercy and works on behalf of His New Covenant people and humanity in general. In this psalm, the works of God on behalf of the poor and afflicted are the works of Jesus Christ during His three-year ministry: feeding the multitudes, healing the blind, protecting the weak, raising the dead, etc. The mercy and justice the poor do not receive on earth, Jesus promises to them in His heavenly Kingdom (see Jesus's promised blessings of the poor and afflicted in Lk 6:20-23).
The Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ~ The Qualities
of Discipleship
26 Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many
of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of
noble birth. 27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28 and God chose the
lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to
nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast before
God. 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom
from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that,
as it is written, "Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord."
Paul wrote to the Christians of Corinth, as it was in the case of Jesus's relationship with His Twelve Apostles and His men and women disciples, that it was God who called them to discipleship and gave each Christian a vocation. Jesus told His disciples: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you" (Jn 15:16). St. Paul emphasized that the initiative of discipleship was with God, saying three times in verses 26-29 that is was God who chose them, and He did not base His choice on human standards of wisdom or status.
In verse 30, St. Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians that the source of their life in Christ Jesus is God, using four words to describe how Jesus gives life and is the source of (1) wisdom, (2) righteousness, (3) sanctification, and (4) redemption. The response to God's call makes a person a member of Christ's Body, the Church, through the Sacrament of Baptism. And, if a disciple is humble in submitting himself to the gift of God's grace, they will gradually become so Christ-like as to be able to say with St. Paul: I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me (Gal 2:19b-20).
Saint Paul wrote that when a disciple was humble in submitting himself to the gift of God's grace, they would gradually become more and more Christ-like. Therefore, we shouldn't boast of our works on behalf of Christ because our good deeds result from Christ working through us. We do not accomplish the grace that leads to our salvation or the gifts of faith on our own merits. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross merits our salvation. Becoming supernaturally infused with the life of Christ in the Sacraments enables a Christian to share in the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption that is His promise to every faithful Christian disciple.
The Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12a ~ Jesus Teaches the
Beatitudes as the Pathway to Salvation
1 When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and
after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He began to teach them,
saying:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in
heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
When Jesus withdrew from the crowds up onto the mountain, the men He called to receive His spiritual teaching were His disciples and Apostles (see Mt 5:1 and Lk 6:12-16). It was too deep a spiritual lesson for the ordinary people who had not yet come to know Him as Lord and Savior. When Jesus descended the mountain to speak to the crowds, He gave them another teaching related to their current sufferings and promises of God's ultimate justice. In the Beatitude teaching of the blessings of the New Covenant, Jesus began to prepare His Apostles and disciples for the second great Pentecost, which resulted in the birth of the New Covenant people through baptism by water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-5; Acts 2).
The blessings of the Beatitudes are the spiritual attributes of everyone who answers God's call to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Like the passage in the first reading, the Beatitudes have a spiritual message and an eschatological fulfillment. They promise eternal blessedness and salvation but not in this world. The eternal nature of the promises of the Beatitudes was not possible under the sacramental system of the Old Covenant Church, and its Law could only identify sin but could not promise eternal salvation (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #1716-1724; 1961-64). The Beatitudes are the blueprint for a radically transformed life in the Spirit, and each of the Beatitudes is a step forward on the road to eternal salvation. These spiritual laws must be fulfilled in total since one spiritual attribute makes way to the next until all have been mastered and carried forward in the believer's life. The call of the Beatitudes is to fulfill all the blessings and to reap all the promises. Jesus lists seven (or eight, depending on how you count them) spiritual states, with each Beatitude blessing followed by an eternal promise.
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The first step on the road to
salvation is to admit "poverty of spirit" (as opposed to pride of spirit) by surrendering
our lives to God. We cannot buy our salvation or even work to earn it
(Eph 2:5-8). Instead, we must accept God's gift and make it our own so that the
works of God can work through us (Eph 2:9-10). Only someone who submits to
God's sovereignty over their life can hope to receive the promised blessing of
eternal life. The first is the most difficult of the Beatitudes and, therefore,
is why Jesus lists it first in the progression of the transformation of life in
Christ. This submission begins in professing faith in God and submitting to the
Sacrament of Christian Baptism, where we die to sin and are raised to a new
life in Christ Jesus as children in the family of God
(1 Jn 3:10; Mk 16:16).
4 Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
When one submits to God in "poverty
of spirit," that person places themselves before the throne of God and
immediately becomes conscious of how sin harms their relationship with the
Father. The natural response is to mourn our sins which leads to confession and
the comfort of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, this
Beatitude, like the other Beatitudes, has an implied negative. Those who refuse
to mourn their sins will separate themselves from God's forgiveness for their
sins and the comfort that comes from repentance and restored communion with the
Lord.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
When we humbly confess our sins and receive forgiveness, we
are not only comforted, but we become meek in the hands of our Creator. Jesus taught
us: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of
heart; and you will find rest for yourselves (Mt 11:29). Jesus's
teaching is that we must submit in meekness to the divine Master's guidance and
not resist His authority like oxen who strain against the guidance of their
master's yoke. And God promises the meek and humble that they will inherit the
"land." In the Bible, "the land" always refers to the "Promised land" of
Israel. But in the Beatitudes, the blessings are not temporal; they are
eternal. Therefore, through our meekness and humility and not through conquest,
we will become inheritors of the "Promised Land" of Heaven, and we will find
rest in the home of our heavenly Father.
6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
As we become more like Christ, we hunger and thirst for the
King of righteousness. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus satisfies that desire
by making us partakers of His divine life and satisfies our hunger and thirst
for Him. This blessing and promise is the turning point in the Beatitudes. Up
to this point, the focus has been on the most basic aspects of our relationship
with God. Up until now, the focus has been on our needs:
But now, the focus has changed to our need for union with the fullness of God. Therefore, the focus turns to Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, who fulfills our desire for unity with the fullness of God Himself in the gift of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the Most Holy Trinity gives Himself entirely to the soul who hungers and thirsts for Him. He gives Himself entirely in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. He comes to us in the miracle of Transubstantiation as the Bridegroom giving all of Himself to His Bride, the Church.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
As we become more Christ-like in living the Beatitudes, we can
extend His love and compassion to others. This outpouring of love and compassion
is not limited to those who are loveable or who show us mercy but to those suffering
souls who are most in need of the love of Christ in their lives. Jesus promises
that we will be shown God's mercy in showing His mercy to others. However, this
Beatitude also has an implied negative. If we don't show mercy to others, how
can we expect to receive God's mercy?
8 Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
At this point in living out the
Beatitudes, our transformed lives have given us clean, purified hearts that mirror
the heart of Jesus, our Redeemer. Only those with pure hearts can truly see God
in the faces of everyone with whom they share His love. And the pure of heart
have Jesus's promise that, if they persevere in faith, they will see God face
to face in His heavenly Kingdom.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
With Christ living within us, we
become conformed to His image of peace and love. In the image of Christ Jesus,
we are no longer children in the family of Adam, but we become divine children
of our heavenly Father. As St. John the Apostle wrote: No one who is
begotten by God commits sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot sin
because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the
children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness
belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother (1 Jn 3:9-10).
10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
These verses are the summation of the Beatitudes in living
the Law of Love on the journey to eternal salvation. Jesus's promise is a
repeat of the first promise in verse 3: the inheritance of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Notice that the pronouns have changed from "they/theirs" to "you/your."
The Church Fathers understood these verses to apply to Jesus Christ and to be a
direct prophecy of His Passion. The rewards of living the Beatitudes are
eternal, but to reach that eternal reward may involve suffering. We must be
ready and willing to endure suffering for the sake of our salvation. If God did
not spare His Son or His Son's Mother her suffering, why should He spare us? According
to St. Anthony: No one can enter the kingdom of heaven without being tested;
it says, take away temptation and no one will be saved (St. Anthony quoted
in Sayings of the Desert Fathers, as quoted from The Beatitudes:
Soundings in Christian Tradition, page 104).
The first Beatitude we must achieve on this spiritual journey to heaven, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, both sets the spiritual tone of Jesus's message and suggests the present reality. The verb in the promise of the first beatitude is in the present tense: theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The final blessing-promise, which addresses persecution, is also in the present tense: Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The other blessings all contain a verb in the simple future tense "they will or shall be ...." Jesus's Beatitudes promise a present and future fulfillment.
It is through the universal Catholic Church and especially the Sacraments, the visible signs of God's grace given to the Church through the works of Jesus the Messiah, that our Lord and Savior blesses and encourages us in this life as we look forward to the next:
The Beatitudes contain seven or eight spiritual attributes depending on how you count them; there are eight if one includes verses 10-12 as an eighth Beatitude instead of a summation. They are successive fundamental spiritual states that every Christian must strive to achieve. Jesus asks us in this earthly exile to live the spiritual reality of the Beatitudes daily, to walk in His footsteps, spreading His love and giving His mercy. However, we must also keep our eyes on Heaven because that is our future and eternal reality. The last repeated promised blessing is also a bridge to Jesus's continued teaching of living in spiritual love in His Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:13-7:29): Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you... And what follows is the salt and light metaphors illustrating the blessing of the spiritual fertility that comes from living the Beatitudes and bearing the fruit of our faith, which is the good deeds that glorify God.
We must live the Beatitudes fully and completely, just as we must obey the Ten Commandments of the moral law in their entirety, just as we must claim all seven of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for them to open in our souls (Is 11:1-2; CCC # 1831), and just as all twelve "fruits" of the Holy Spirit must ripen within us for us to bear the "good fruit" of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23; CCC# 1832). However, as the New Law of God the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes represent both a present and a future fulfillment. Just as Jesus was a present reality in His Resurrection as the "firstfruits" of the Resurrection promised to all of us as a future reality (Col 1:15), so Jesus wants us to be strengthened and encouraged by the "firstfruits" of these spiritual gifts. The "great harvest" He will reap in divine judgment is yet to come; it is then that Christ returns to gather the "faithful remnant" of His elect who are waiting for His return (1 Thess 4:16)! See the chart on the Beatitudes.
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Zephaniah 2:3 (CCC 64*, 711*, 716*),
3:12-13 (CCC 722*, 2676)
1 Corinthians 1:27 (CCC 489*), 1:30 (CCC 2813)
Matthew 5:1 (CCC 581*), 5:3-12 (CCC 1716), 5:3 (CCC 544, 2546), 5:8 (CCC 1720, 2518), 5:9 (CCC 2305, 2330), 5:11-12 (CCC 520*)
Jesus is a model of the beatitudes for followers (CCC 459*, 520*, 521)
The call to beatitude (CCC 1716*, 1717-1719, 1720*, 1721*, 1722-23, 1724*)
The poor and humble remnant bear the hope of the Messiah (CCC 64*, 716*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.