TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR C
Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini
A good Sunday to all.
When we think of the answer that Jesus gave to the Canaanite woman, “It is not good to give the children's bread to dogs,” it causes us surprise because this kind of expression in the mouth of Jesus always surprises us a little bit. To be far from the pagans, considered impure, was instilled in the heart of the Israelites from an early age. Jesus also received this education. Separating the sacred from the profane and pure from the impure had to be always well defined.
Every Israelite was conscious of belonging to a holy people. ‘Kadosh' in Hebrew means separated from the 70 pagan nations. They all remembered what was written in the book of Leviticus, chapter 20:7, where God says: "Sanctify yourselves, then, and be holy; for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.” Therefore, separate yourselves from other people, for you are mine. An expression that could also be misunderstood: 'You are mine and the others I reject.' Indeed, the Lord intended to say: 'You are holy; you must reflect my holiness and, therefore, not fall into the idolatry of the pagans. Be careful not to let yourselves be corrupted by their immoral customs.' This expression could also be understood as a motive of pride and superiority concerning the other peoples and, therefore, the contempt of the pagans.
Another separation that had to be well delimited—always per the holiness willed by God for his people— was between those who led a life of integrity, who remained faithful to the law of the Lord, and the ungodly, sinners with whom the righteous should have no relationship. Therefore, contempt for sinners, tax collectors, and others. For example, if a pagan, though inadvertently, set foot in the house of a pious Jew, everything in that house was defiled. That house had to be purified, all the walls and objects. The rabbis prescribed that the pious Israelites should not associate with the wicked or even lead them to observe the Torah. The rabbis, the spiritual guides of the people, presented these provisions as the will of the Lord. Therefore, they were convinced that even God kept away impure people, rejecting sinners and wanting to punish them, to curse them.
Let us remember what the Pharisee says in the temple: 'Lord, I thank you that I am not like other mortals; neither am I like the one back there. We two agree: You are holy, and I am holy together with you; the other is unclean, impure.' So, we want to know if God thought like that Pharisee in the temple. Did God reject other peoples and sinners, or was this a false image of God that the spiritual guides of Israel taught? God wanted to be seen in Jesus of Nazareth. So, we want to know how Jesus behaved with tax collectors and sinners. Let us listen:
"The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
"The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him.” The original Greek text has a significant construction: 'ἐγγγίζοντες' - 'enguísontes,' which does not mean only that they came near, is much stronger; it means that they were doing everything they could to get close to him; they continued to look for him because they wanted to be by his side. It is striking that these people wanted to follow Jesus after what he said. Recall what he said last week when the crowd came to him: 'If anyone puts before me love for father, mother, children, and love for his own life, he cannot be my disciple. If someone does not carry his cross, he cannot be my disciple, especially not my disciple; if anyone does not renounce all his possessions and distribute them to those in need, he cannot be my disciple.’
So, we would expect those who have made a life choice that is the opposite of what Jesus proposes to turn away from him spontaneously. Or that he would turn them away badly, as the rabbis did. But here's the kicker. These people who are at the base of the Jewish society, the unclean ones amid a 'holy' people, seek him; they come to him. Why? Because they feel the need for him, the need of God. This need cannot be silenced because if you don't do it, it leaves you with an inner restlessness that cannot be hidden. These people have everything in life: honors, feasts, pleasure, and amusements; they seek joy, but they only find pleasure.
We are well made; we are made to build our life according to the proposal of man that we see incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. It is the proposal of the Gospel; if we do not realize it, we will not be happy. If these people come to Jesus, if they are looking for him, it is because they have this inner restlessness that does not leave them calm. They have no peace in their heart.
How do they solve this inner problem that they have? Why are they looking for Jesus? They could have gone to the scribes, the Pharisees, the righteous, people close to God, and teachers of spiritual life. But they know how they are judged by the righteous. They cast them out; they drive them away. Psalm 15 describes the righteous: 'He looks down upon the reprobate.' And they put it into practice. Worse still, Psalm 139 refers to the words of the righteous man who is proud of his moral integrity and says: “When you would destroy the wicked, O God, the bloodthirsty depart from me! In other words, if you let me be 'god' for fifteen minutes, I will purify the world of all sinners, 'I pray to the Lord that he will decide to do so.'” And Psalm 6:9: “Depart from me, you evildoers, for the Lord has heard my sobs....” Then he addresses the Lord directly in Psalm 139:21: “Do I not hate, Lord, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe? With fierce hatred, I hate them, enemies I count as my own.” And he is waiting for the Lord to agree with him!
If these sinners and tax collectors come to Jesus, they need him because they feel loved as they are, not judged and marginalized. Jesus certainly disapproves of their life choices, but he sees their condition very differently from the Pharisees. These are sinners. 'Sin' in Hebrew is חטאה - hatáh means to miss the mark, to shoot an arrow against the adversary, but to miss; or rather, to use a bad bow that shoots the arrow, but the arrow does not reach the adversary.
These sinners are those who aim at glory but do not reach it. Therefore, they are not people to be punished and marginalized but to be loved, to be helped, to point the way to be truly happy. Instead, what did the scribes and the Pharisees do? They come to Jesus, who introduces himself as the Son of God, that is, as the one who reproduces the face of the Father, but they cannot bear a God who does not condemn sinners. They have not understood what sin is. Sin is a dehumanization that must be healed, not punished.
The gospel text says they 'complained.' It does not mean to whisper; διεγόγγυζον – ‘diegongyzon’ means 'to answer back,' they condemned Jesus' behavior. Let us keep in mind that the Pharisees were not evil people. We have in mind an incorrect image of the Pharisees as hypocrites... Paul, a Pharisee, praises them for their faithfulness to the law. They bring two accusations against Jesus: They say, 'This man' (they do not say ‘Jesus,’ they say, 'this man'), 'welcomes sinners' (first accusation), and 'eats with them.'
This verb 'to welcome' is very beautiful; the Greek verb does not say 'welcome.' To welcome would be 'déjomai,' but here it says: προσδέχεται - 'prosdejetai,' which means to approach these people to welcome them, hence, to extend arms to embrace them, to draw them to oneself. This is προσδέχoμαι - prosdéjomai. They are surprised at this tenderness of Jesus for those who are making a mistake. And it cannot be otherwise because God is like that. And then, even worse, he 'eats with them.' He shares the joy with them; he receives them as they are.
Jesus finds himself with two groups of people who need to be saved. The sinners are already enveloped in his love; he has brought them to his house with tenderness and wants to keep them close. They are already sitting at a table with him. What does Jesus want now? That the other righteous sit at the table together with these brothers and receive them as they are. Also, these sinners must accept the righteous ones who are not very nice because of their pride and their presumption to think that they are closer to God.
What does Jesus do? Jesus has already wrapped sinners in his love; he already has them at hand and has them in his heart. Now, Jesus wants to save the righteous, the Pharisees; he must free them from that dangerous image of God that they like so much. The God that they worship is the righteous God. Jesus must purify the mind and the heart of this dangerous image of God that will never make them happy. And what does he do? He does not reason because he would not get any result; even if he filled them with biblical quotations, he would not convert them. What does Jesus do? He resorts to two parables. Let's listen to the first one:
"So to them, Jesus addressed this parable. ‘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? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy, 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.’ 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.”
Jesus loves the scribes and Pharisees and wants to rid them of the false image of God they have in mind. That false image of God leads them to despise sinners and to turn away from them. What God do they have in mind? The God who loves you well if you behave well, but if you misbehave and transgress his commands, He does not grant you his benefits and even punishes you. But for Jesus, things are not like that. If you do things right, you are happy, but if you do not follow the ways of the Lord, you will not find joy. You will do evil to yourself, not to God, who will continue to love you.
Jesus must convert these scribes and Pharisees to the true image of God—the God who loves unconditionally. The scene of the parable is set in the wilderness of Judah, which Jesus knows very well because he has crossed it many times. There are caves and ravines in which the thieves and bandits took refuge. There are also the jacals; there are many dangers in the desert. It is an arid place, like the one you see behind me, but when the first rains come, the desert blooms; in spring, the desert blooms, and the mountains are covered with grass. Jesus begins the parable by addressing himself first to those listening to him because he wants to provoke them.
He asks them a question that forces them to listen to their heart precisely as the shepherd does. The shepherd also reacts with the head, but when the heart suggests something different than the head, in the end, he listens to the heart. This is the case in this parable. If the shepherd listens to the head: it is night, he cannot see well, it is risky to go into the wilderness where there are thieves, wild animals, wolves... it is dangerous; then there are the 99 sheep that are in the desert and the thieves who wait for the shepherd to be absent to steal the sheep.
If he had listened to the head, the shepherd would not have moved to look for the sheep he had lost. Let's see, instead, how this shepherd behaves. He follows the heart. The heart of this shepherd is important because it represents the heart of God. He has 100 sheep and loses one. Let us note that it is not the sheep that is lost. Why is there no reproach to the sheep? The nature of the sheep entails the possibility of getting lost. And God willed this sheep to be so because if it were not so, it would not be a sheep.
Sheep see very little, 7 or 8 meters; in fact, we notice that the sheep always follow the one that goes ahead, and when they lose sight of it, they no longer know where to go. The shepherd loves sheep that are like that, that see little and can get lost. Even God cannot make sheep that cannot get lost, for they would not be sheep then. He made the sheep; therefore, He is responsible if they are lost.
Sometimes, we hear someone who says: 'Why didn't God make us impeccable, all good.’ He could do it, but it wouldn't be us if He had. He has made us like sheep that can go astray. The balanced person calmly accepts this condition; he is content with his identity and does not get angry about his frailties and weaknesses; he takes them into account because they are part of our nature. God has willed it so, and he loves us as the shepherd loves the sheep that can get lost. If they could not be lost, they would not be sheep. Therefore, the serene person, faced with his mistake, says, I made a mistake in my path, and I thank the one who helped me to retake the way of life, and I go on with serenity.'
What does the shepherd who follows the heart do? He leaves the 99 in the desert. It is an illogical decision, but it shows love for the one sheep that has gone astray. This is what Jesus wants to bring out: what counts for God is each person is his son or daughter, and one like that will never exist again. This is the dignity of every person. Let us stop thinking that we are loved because we have behaved well, and only if we behave well. We are loved because we are sons and daughters of God; our sin will never cancel the dignity of being a son or daughter of God. No matter how great our sin may be, it cannot cancel God's love for each of us. The Pharisees of yesterday and today do not understand that God does not get angry for our sins because we have disobeyed; he forgives us only if we repent.
Our sin does not offend God; it does evil to us, displeasing God, but He does not add another evil. God continues to love us because he can do nothing but love each of his sons and daughters. And what does He do when he manages to lead them to the right path, to the path of life? The joy, the feast. The narrative is presented only with gestures of love. The evangelist Matthew also narrates this parable, but only Luke has some details: that of the shepherd who carries the sheep on his shoulders.
There are narrations of shepherds that when a sheep went astray, he would break its leg so that it would not go astray again. Jesus is not like that; he does not put this possibility and eventuality in his parable—only joy. Besides, the shepherd carries it on his back; the others must walk, but the shepherd carries this one. It is the explosion of joy. In this parable, we find an almost excessive joy. There is more joy in heaven than for 99 righteous who did not err in the way.
Jesus narrated this first parable to present the paternal heart of God. Indeed, the image is that of the shepherd. In the second parable that we will now listen to, Jesus highlights the maternal heart of God through the image of a woman. Let's listen to this second parable:
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
This parable also begins with a question. Jesus uses it to contemplate the heart of this woman, her love for this coin, because this woman's love represents God's motherly love. This parable is not set outdoors, in the desert, as in the preceding one, but inside a house. I have placed a very famous archaeological house in the background. It is not from Capernaum; it is located in Kasserin, a village in the desert. It is not far from Capernaum and is a little later than the time of Jesus. But the houses of Capernaum from the time of Jesus were precisely like this.
Notice the door through which the light enters, the oven, the terracotta vessels, the stone pitcher to hold the water, and the irregular stones of the basalt floor, which is the stone of the place. Then you can see where they put the instruments of work, the basket, and the pitchfork; notice the low and dark window because it did not communicate with the outside. It was the pantry. In this context, there is an old woman with a handkerchief with ten drachmas. The drachma—you see it in the background—was the daily stipend of a worker.
What did this woman do? She wrapped them in her handkerchief and then hid them, naturally. You can imagine they were safe among the stones on which the beams rested. One day, she takes out her handkerchief, and a coin falls on the ground. It is part of the nature of coins to drop out of your hand. This happens easily. It is the image of the brother or sister who can easily fall out of the hands of God. It is part of their nature - as it is with the sheep. There is the possibility of getting lost. It is the invitation that Jesus makes us aware of our fragility and weakness and, therefore, lose all our pride; it is not we who build a life and deserve the love of God, no. This is our condition, and God loves us dearly, just as we are. One of the coins escapes from God's hands; the brother or the sister went out the right way.
What does this woman do? This woman represents God's love for all his sons and daughters. And we are told how to recover this son or daughter for God. In other words, we find the love of God in this woman, and if we are in tune with this love, we must become angels for our brother or sister to bring them to life. And thus, the parable becomes a catechesis.
The first thing to do: ‘Light the lamp.' What is this lamp? It makes us see well where to find the brother or sister. In the bible, the lamp is the word of God... "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path," says Psalm 119. The one who wants to be an angel of the Lord, the one who vibrates with the same feelings of love for God, lights this lamp to see well the brother or the sister in difficulty. If he does not light this lamp, he will see the brother or sister as the scribes and Pharisees see them: one to be rejected and condemned; seeing our brothers and sisters in the light of our anger, of our resentment... 'because he did not listen to me'... 'he asked for it'... 'too bad for him' ... 'let him get on with it.' If you do not light the lamp of God's word, which makes you see the brother's difficulty with the love with which God sees it, you may err in your approach and become a scribe or a Pharisee.
And then what do you do? After you light the lamp, not before, otherwise you will look for it incorrectly, you start to check the house. He understands that this brother has ended up in filth, but this brother or sister is not filth but that's where they ended up. And from there, he must take him out. Jesus says, "He that hears not my word shall end in Gehenna." Gehenna is not hell... let us put an end to equating Gehenna with hell. The term 'hell' does not exist in the mouth of Jesus. It is Gehenna, the garbage dump where one will end up if one does not follow the way of the Lord. Life is ruined. And it is in that dunghill that you must look for him because he is a treasure.
What happens when this woman finds the coin? The feast, the joy, an almost excessive joy. As with the first parable, there is no accusation of the coin. It is part of its nature that it can happen to be lost. You must recover it. This parable's conclusion is beautiful and leads us to reflect on what God expects from us. We are in condition to start a feast in heaven and a feast in the heart of God. If we are in tune with the heart of God, we love the brother or the sister as He loves them, and it is through us, his angels, that God recovers his treasure.
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.
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