July 7, 2007 Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

2007년 7월 7일 연중 제13주간 토요일 

 

 제1독서

창세기 . 27,1-5.15-29
1 이사악은 늙어서 눈이 어두워 잘 볼 수 없게 되었을 때, 큰아들 에사우를 불러 그에게 “내 아들아!” 하고 말하였다. 에사우가 “예, 여기 있습니다.” 하고 대답하자, 2 그가 말하였다.
“네가 보다시피 나는 이제 늙어서 언제 죽을지 모르겠구나. 3 그러니 이제 사냥할 때 쓰는 화살 통과 활을 메고 들로 나가, 나를 위해 사냥을 해 오너라. 4 그런 다음 내가 좋아하는 대로 별미를 만들어 나에게 가져오너라. 그것을 먹고, 내가 죽기 전에 너에게 축복하겠다.”
5 레베카는 이사악이 아들 에사우에게 하는 말을 엿듣고 있었다. 에사우가 사냥하러 들로 나가자, 15 레베카는 자기가 집에 가지고 있던 큰아들 에사우의 옷 가운데 가장 값진 것을 꺼내어, 작은아들 야곱에게 입혔다. 16 그리고 그 새끼 염소의 가죽을 그의 손과 매끈한 목둘레에 입힌 다음, 17 자기가 만든 별미와 빵을 아들 야곱의 손에 들려 주었다.
18 야곱이 아버지에게 가서 “아버지!” 하고 불렀다. 그가 “나 여기 있다. 아들아, 너는 누구냐?” 하고 묻자, 19 야곱이 아버지에게 대답하였다. “저는 아버지의 맏아들 에사우입니다. 아버지께서 저에게 이르신 대로 하였습니다. 그러니 일어나 앉으셔서 제가 사냥한 고기를 잡수시고, 저에게 축복해 주십시오.”
20 그래서 이사악이 아들에게 “내 아들아, 어떻게 이처럼 빨리 찾을 수가 있었더냐?” 하고 묻자, 그가 “아버지의 하느님이신 주님께서 일이 잘되게 해 주셨습니다.” 하고 대답하였다.
21 이사악이 야곱에게 말하였다. “내 아들아, 가까이 오너라. 네가 정말 내 아들 에사우인지 아닌지 내가 만져 보아야겠다.” 22 야곱이 아버지 이사악에게 가까이 가자, 이사악이 그를 만져 보고 말하였다. “목소리는 야곱의 목소리인데, 손은 에사우의 손이로구나.”
23 그는 야곱의 손에 그의 형 에사우의 손처럼 털이 많았기 때문에 그를 알아보지 못하고, 그에게 축복해 주기로 하였다. 24 이사악이 “네가 정말 내 아들 에사우냐?” 하고 다져 묻자, 그가 “예, 그렇습니다.” 하고 대답하였다.
25 그러자 이사악이 말하였다. “그것을 나에게 가져오너라. 내 아들이 사냥한 고기를 먹고, 너에게 축복해 주겠다.” 야곱이 아버지에게 그것을 가져다 드리니 그가 먹었다. 그리고 포도주를 가져다 드리니 그가 마셨다. 26 그런 다음 아버지 이사악이 그에게 말하였다. “내 아들아, 가까이 와서 입 맞춰 다오.”
27 그가 가까이 가서 입을 맞추자, 이사악은 그의 옷에서 나는 냄새를 맡고 그에게 축복하였다. “보아라, 내 아들의 냄새는 주님께서 복을 내리신 들의 냄새 같구나.
28 하느님께서는 너에게 하늘의 이슬을 내려 주시리라. 땅을 기름지게 하시며, 곡식과 술을 풍성하게 해 주시리라.
29 뭇 민족이 너를 섬기고, 뭇 겨레가 네 앞에 무릎을 꿇으리라. 너는 네 형제들의 지배자가 되고, 네 어머니의 자식들은 네 앞에 무릎을 꿇으리라.
너를 저주하는 자는 저주를 받고, 너에게 축복하는 자는 복을 받으리라.”

 

 복음

마태오 9,14-17
14 그때에 요한의 제자들이 예수님께 와서, “저희와 바리사이들은 단식을 많이 하는데, 스승님의 제자들은 어찌하여 단식하지 않습니까?” 하고 물었다. 15 예수님께서 그들에게 이르셨다.
“혼인 잔치 손님들이 신랑과 함께 있는 동안에 슬퍼할 수야 없지 않으냐? 그러나 그들이 신랑을 빼앗길 날이 올 것이다. 그러면 그들도 단식할 것이다.
16 아무도 새 천 조각을 헌 옷에 대고 꿰매지 않는다. 헝겊에 그 옷이 땅겨 더 심하게 찢어지기 때문이다.
17 또한 새 포도주를 헌 가죽 부대에 담지 않는다. 그렇게 하면 부대가 터져 포도주는 쏟아지고 부대도 버리게 된다. 새 포도주는 새 부대에 담아야 한다. 그래야 둘 다 보존된다.”

 

 

 

 July 7, 2007

 Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

  

 Reading 1
Gn 27:1-5, 15-29

When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him,
he called his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!”
“Yes father!” he replied.
Isaac then said, “As you can see, I am so old
that I may now die at any time.
Take your gear, therefore–your quiver and bow–
and go out into the country to hunt some game for me.
With your catch prepare an appetizing dish for me, such as I like,
and bring it to me to eat,
so that I may give you my special blessing before I die.”

Rebekah had been listening
while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau.
So, when Esau went out into the country
to hunt some game for his father,
Rebekah [then] took the best clothes of her older son Esau
that she had in the house,
and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;
and with the skins of the kids she covered up his hands
and the hairless parts of his neck.
Then she handed her son Jacob the appetizing dish
and the bread she had prepared.

Bringing them to his father, Jacob said, “Father!”
“Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?”
Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your first-born.
I did as you told me.
Please sit up and eat some of my game,
so that you may give me your special blessing.”
But Isaac asked, “How did you succeed so quickly, son?”
He answered,
“The LORD, your God, let things turn out well with me.”
Isaac then said to Jacob,
“Come closer, son, that I may feel you,
to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
So Jacob moved up closer to his father.
When Isaac felt him, he said,
“Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.”
(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy,
like those of his brother Esau;
so in the end he gave him his blessing.)
Again he asked Jacob, “Are you really my son Esau?”
“Certainly,” Jacob replied.
Then Isaac said, “Serve me your game, son, that I may eat of it
and then give you my blessing.”
Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate;
he brought him wine, and he drank.
Finally his father Isaac said to Jacob,
“Come closer, son, and kiss me.”
As Jacob went up and kissed him,
Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes.
With that, he blessed him saying,

“Ah, the fragrance of my son
is like the fragrance of a field
that the LORD has blessed!

“May God give to you
of the dew of the heavens
And of the fertility of the earth
abundance of grain and wine.

“Let peoples serve you,
and nations pay you homage;
Be master of your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 135:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6

R. (3a) Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the name of the LORD;
Praise, you servants of the LORD
Who stand in the house of the LORD,
in the courts of the house of our God.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praise to his name, which we love;
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel for his own possession.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
For I know that the LORD is great;
our LORD is greater than all gods.
All that the LORD wills he does
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and in all the deeps.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.

Gospel
Mt 9:14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

 

 

 Commentary

 

 Isaac is old and can't see. He tells his firstborn Esau to go hunting for him and bring him something and in return he will give him a blessing. Rebekah, whose favorite is Jacob, plots to have him go to his aged father and pass himself off as his older brother and so get the firstborn's birthright and blessing. (Our ancestors are a fine lot-no better than what you would find in soap operas). Jacob does pull it off, though one suspects that Isaac knew the deception, and it is Jacob who goes off with the blessing/promise given to Isaac and Abraham before him.
Jesus is caught in the throes of teaching his disciples while the Pharisees keep questioning what he does and says-why not fast like John's disciples? They have no idea who Jesus is and that while his presence is in the world, why would anyone fast? Jesus is a new thing, unimagined, and his presence/person is so strong that it will pull on the old and stretch it out of shape. We have to be made new to be able to absorb Jesus' words and life.

 

 

 It doesn’t seem to me that I take the notion of blessing as seriously as I might. Perhaps it is growing up offering a “God bless you” for every sneeze around us, or perhaps it is simply that the physical sciences explain many of the natural phenomena that were so mysterious to our Biblical ancestors, but both blessings and curses too often seem to be “mere words” to many of us in our very secular, modern world. Today’s first reading poses a strong challenge to that unfaithful attitude!

Clearly the blessing – of long life, authority, abundance of material wealth and the ability to extend the special friendship of God to those you choose – was understood to be a real and central power in Israel’s history. Isaac had only one blessing of this kind to extend according to the Genesis account of today’s first reading. Obviously this blessing went forth from him as real power. It is this favor of God that is embedded in Jacob’s (later called Israel) descendants that Jesus inherits to the full and shares with us, his Body. In recognizing our blessings and our blessedness – that is, that we are favored by God, not over against others, perhaps, but simply and really blessed. The only legitimate response to such gratuity, it seems to me, is gratitude. Out of genuine gratitude we have the power – real authority of God – to bless others with God’s power by our prayers and our deeds.

To bless is to offer the power of God, life and love – and all that these gifts entail – to others. In Jesus, we can extend that power beyond the limits of blood relationship to the whole world, if we but will to do so. But we must make no mistake, offering to others the blessing of God is also an extension of ourselves in some mysterious way. In giving blessing we give of the real blessings we have received to seed and symbolize the greater gift behind our material offerings. A blessing is not a “mere” word – but an intention to do the Good for another. From Isaac the blessing to Jacob was the giving over of his own long and full life.

Jacob’s descendants, in telling the story of the blessing of Isaac that is stolen by Jacob from his older brother, are clearly describing how the election of God descended from Abraham to Isaac and then to Jacob – but not to Isaac’s half brother Ishmael (and his descendents) nor to Jacob’s brother Esau (and his descendents). With our sensibility about fairness this can strike us as unjust of God to allow human deceit to direct God’s blessing. But the story tellers are also at pains to show that God chooses to work within the choices of human persons, both virtuous and devious. It is a great mystery that God, who is perfectly gracious and merciful, seems to allow Divine power and authority to be dispensed by the unjust. But if that were not the case, how could any of us give God’s blessings to others? All of us are a mixture of goodness and wickedness. And the mystery is that God chooses us despite our vices, even our unbelief, to both receive and share the gift of Divine Blessings. For this we can sing the Response to today’s Psalm: “Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!”

 

 by
Eileen Burke-Sullivan
Theology Department

 

 

 "The day will come when they will fast"

Which comes first, fasting or feasting?  The disciples of John the Baptist were upset with Jesus’ disciples because they did not fast. Fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer and almsgiving.  Jesus gave a simple explanation.  There’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting (or celebrating). To walk as a disciple with Jesus is to experience a whole new joy of relationship akin to the joy of the wedding party in celebrating with the groom and bride their wedding bliss. But there also comes a time when the Lord's disciples must bear the cross of affliction and purification.  For the disciple there is both a time for rejoicing in the Lord's presence and celebrating his goodness and a time for seeking the Lord with humility and fasting and for mourning over sin.  Do you take joy in the Lord’s presence with you and do you express sorrow and contrition for your sins?

Jesus goes on to warn his disciples about the problem of the “closed mind” that refuses to learn new things.  Jesus used an image familiar to his audience — new and old wineskins.  In Jesus’ times, wine was stored in wineskins, not bottles.  New wine poured into skins was still fermenting. The gases exerted gave pressure.  New wine skins were elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins easily burst because they were hard. What did Jesus mean by this comparison?  Are we to reject the old in place of the new?  Just as there is a right place and a right time for fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the new.  Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matthew 13:52).  How impoverished we would be if we only had the Old Testament or the New Testament, rather than both.  The Lord gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both the old and the new. He doesn't want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives.  He wants our minds and hearts to be like new wine skins — open and ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit.  Are you eager to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God’s word and plan for your life?

"Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth.  Help me to seek you earnestly in prayer and fasting that I may turn away from sin and wilfulness and conform my life more fully to your will. May I always find joy in knowing, loving, and serving you.”

Psalm 85:9,11-13

9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 Yea, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him, and make his footsteps a way.

 

 

 In former times, commentators tried to excuse the behavior of Jacob.   They says that he wasn’t really lying, but was using mental reservation, and that he wasn’t really cheating, since is was God’s plan to have the “promise” descend through him.   That is nice pietism, but it wont’ wash.  The truth is that Jacob was a liar, a cheat, and a thief.   The “birthright” was considered one’s most precious possession; yet Jacob stole it when his brother was hungry.  (No matter that the behavior of Esau in giving it up was held in greater disdain.)   A father’s final blessing was also one of the greatest honors; blessings were considered to have a “quasi-sacramental” effect.  
The lesson of the story is not to exculpate Jacob, but rather to see that God can write straight with crooked lines.   God can take the lowly and the sinner and still accomplish his mighty purposes through them.  By this way, God shows his holiness and his power in overcoming all obstacles to his own gracious purpose.  

 

 

 The disciples of John bring up religious observance and practice of particular followers.  Jesus goes beyond the details of practices.  He talks of wedding guests and bridegrooms, the patching of garments, the pouring of new wine into skins.  There is where I will dwell in my prayer.  My life with God is like being at a wedding feast, with the bride and the groom.  I will gladly patch my garments with the old rags that God provides.  I will fill my wineskins with the new wine of God's Kingdom.  Soon enough will I fast when in my prayer I experience the Absence more than the Presence.  Either way God comes to me.  I am ready to greet the Bridegroom in whatever form He comes.

--William C. Fredrickson, Obl. OSB, D.Min.