June 13, 2025
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of
the Church
Lectionary: 363
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being given up to death
for the sake of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, ""I believed, therefore I
spoke,""
we too believe and therefore speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Responsorial Psalm
R.(17a) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of
praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";
I said in my alarm,
"No man is dependable."
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
"It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful)
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061325.cfm
Commentary on 2
Corinthians 4:7-15
Having presented an impressive picture of the Christian as
someone brighter than Moses’ reflecting the glory and beauty of God’s Word,
Paul now goes on to the paradox which this situation raises.
He confronts the difficulty that his present existence does
not appear glorious at all, that it is marked instead by suffering and death.
He deals with this by developing a topic mentioned earlier, asserting his faith
in the presence and ultimate triumph of life, both in his own and in every
Christian existence, in spite of the experience of physical suffering and
death.
Certainly, many of his critics would have called into
question the image he himself offered to the world. And Paul is the first to
make the admission:
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be
made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from
us.
The treasure is the glory that he proclaims and into which
all those who hear and accept the message will be transformed. But the
instruments carrying that treasure are very fragile, like the small terracotta
bowls used for oil lamps.
He will make the same point later on in the letter in his
famous passage about the mysterious “sting of the flesh” with which he was
afflicted, saying:
…whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor
12:10)
In doing the work of the gospel, Paul describes some of the
troubles he has experienced, but their net outcome is that others have
benefited:
We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed
but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not
destroyed…
The picture is a negative one, but there is always an
underlying experience of bringing help and salvation into people’s lives. As,
of course, was the ultimate outcome of the appalling suffering and death of
Jesus.
And so Paul concludes that we are:
…always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
What a marvellous saying! Jesus is the paradigm. Paul’s
sufferings are connected with Christ’s and his deliverance is a sign that he is
to share in Jesus’ resurrection. Even when battered and bruised and rejected,
he is reflecting the life-giving suffering and death of Jesus. This is a saying
that could be applied to many who have suffered for the gospel.
He continues in the same vein:
For we who are living are always being handed over to
death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in
our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you.
In other words, his experience of suffering does not end in
himself, but affects others. The Christ-like suffering which Paul experiences
brings life to those to whom he brings the gospel. Here is a living out of the
eighth Beatitude:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:10)
All of this is an important clarification of what he meant
earlier by the dazzling brightness of the Christian disciple and apostle. The
greatest brightness is seen in the one who is ready to undergo every suffering
and every indignity for the sake of Jesus. It is the thinking behind John’s
Gospel where the evangelist sees Jesus’ last agonising moments on the cross as
his moment of glory. It was at that moment that the presence of God in Jesus
shone brightest. It was the centurion, seeing the dying and battered body of
Jesus, who said:
Truly this man was God’s Son! (Matt 27:54)
So Paul makes no apology for all that he has done in
Corinth. Quoting from Psalm 116, he says:
I believed, and so I spoke…
For him, there was no alternative. Like the Psalmist, he
clearly proclaims his faith, affirming life within himself despite death and
the life-giving effect of his experience upon the church.
And Paul continues:
…we know that the one who raised Jesus will also raise us
with Jesus and will present us with you in his presence.
Paul sees God presenting Paul and his companions together
with the Corinthians to Jesus at the final parousia. We may note the strong
expression of unity and reconciliation between Paul and the Corinthians in
spite of the difficulties between them. As he says:
Indeed, everything is for your sake, so that grace, when
it has extended to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the
glory of God.
Whatever people might say or think of him, Paul had only one
aim: the glory of God and that as many as possible should know and acknowledge
Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Undoubtedly, Paul had his faults—glaring faults. And
some of these faults must have rubbed some people the wrong way, but as he will
say later, it is precisely because of these that God’s message shone out more
clearly through him.
The same can be said of us. Let us learn to see our
weaknesses not as obstacles but as opportunities.
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Commentary on
Matthew 5:27-32
In today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes
two more texts from the Old Testament to continue illustrating his attitude to
the Law and its meaning.
One of the Ten Commandments says: “You shall not commit
adultery”. Adultery is here understood as a sexual relationship between two
people, at least one of whom is already married to someone else. But, for
Jesus, for a man even to look at another woman with lust (he does not say
whether either of them is married) is already to have violated the spirit of
the commandment and the kind of relationship that he expects between people. We
would need to distinguish here between a man finding a woman particularly
beautiful or attractive and, on the other hand, looking on her as an object for
sexual gratification. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with the former. We
might also add that what is said here of men applies equally to women. If women
are not mentioned it is because in ancient society the initiative for sexual
activity seldom was available to the woman.
This commandment, in fact, is not primarily about sexual
acts; it is about the inviolable dignity of each person. It is about the deep
respect that people ought to have for their own bodies and the bodies of
others. Other people cannot be used simply for one’s personal pleasure or to
satisfy one’s sexual appetites—not even in the secret recesses of one’s mind
and heart.
Jesus puts the situation rather graphically. He says it
would be better to go physically maimed through life rather than allow oneself
be led into a situation where another person could be so dishonoured. In human
beings, our sexual powers have a double purpose: to express a deep and genuine
love between two people, and for the procreation of new life.
Related to this, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy (24:1):
“Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ.” The original text reads as
follows:
Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman but she
does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, so he
writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of
his house; she then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife.
The text goes on to say that if:
…the second man dislikes her, writes her a certificate of
divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man
who married her dies): her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted
to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that would be
abhorrent to the Lord… (Deut 24:14)
Two things seem clear in Jesus’ time: it was men who could
initiate divorce and on the flimsiest of pretexts; it was the woman who was
considered guilty of adultery by marrying another man, which is why she could
not be received back by her first husband.
Jesus strongly challenges both of these traditions. The Jews
accepted divorce but Jesus is ruling it out. The only exception for a marriage
to be dissolved is on the basis of “sexual immorality” (Greek, porneia).
There is much discussion on the meaning of this term, but it seems that it
refers to a special situation in Matthew’s community. Certain types of marriage
between Jews were regarded as incestuous, but were allowed in the case of a Jew
marrying a Gentile. But Matthew is saying that in the case of a Gentile
becoming a Christian (and marrying a Jewish convert), such exceptions would not
be allowed and divorce should not take place. Jesus says further that a man who
marries a woman who has been divorced commits adultery.
It is important to note that Jesus is first of all putting
men and women morally on an absolutely equal level. He is making the marriage
contract something to be taken very seriously with grave responsibilities on
both sides. This issue will come up again later (in Matthew, chapter 19) and
cause some dismay among Jesus’ disciples.
In our day, the whole question of marriage and the family is
fraught with serious problems. Among them are divorce and adultery, although
the problems here are somewhat different from that of Jesus’ time. The kind of
divorce that Jesus speaks about is of a unilateral decision by a husband who
wants to be rid of his wife, often for trivial reasons. In modern society, it
is more often the result of the painful breakdown of a marriage relationship.
While emphasising that nowadays each case must be treated with great pastoral
sensitivity, we do need to remind ourselves of the fundamental values and
attitudes that Jesus is underlining in this passage.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/O1106g/
Friday,
June 13, 2025
Ordinary
Time
Opening Prayer
God of wisdom and love, source
of all good, send Your Spirit to teach us Your truth and guide our actions in
Your way of peace.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives
and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 5: 27-32
Jesus said to his disciples: "You have
heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her
in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole
body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off
and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to
have your whole body go into Gehenna. "It was also said, whoever divorces
his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces
his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and
whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
Reflection
In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus offered a rereading of the
commandment: “Do not kill” (Mt 5 :20-26). In today’s Gospel Jesus rereads the
commandment “You shall not commit adultery.” Jesus rereads the law starting
from the intention that God had which was proclaimed centuries before on Mount
Sinai. He seeks the spirit of the Law and does not limit himself to the letter.
He takes up again and defends the great values of human life which constitute the
background of each one of these Ten Commandments. He insists on love, on
fidelity, on mercy, on justice, on truth, on humanity (Mt 9: 13; 12: 7; 23: 23;
Mt 5: 10; 5: 20; Lk 11: 42; 18: 9). The result of the full observance of the
Law of God humanizes the person. In Jesus we can see what happens when a person
allows God to fill his life. The last objective is that of uniting both loves
and the building up of fraternity in defense of life. The greater the
fraternity, the greater will be the fullness of life and greater will be the
adoration given by all creatures to God, Creator and Savior. In today’s Gospel,
Jesus looks closely at the man-woman relationship in marriage, a fundamental
basis of human living together. There was a commandment which said, “Do not
commit adultery” and another one which said, “Anyone who divorces his wife, has
to give her a certificate of divorce.” Jesus takes up again both commandments,
giving them a new meaning.
•
Matthew 5: 27-28: Do not commit adultery. What
does this commandment require from us? The ancient response was: a man cannot
sleep with somebody else’s wife. This was demanded by the letter of the
commandment. But Jesus goes beyond, surpasses the letter and says, “But I say
to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery
with her in his heart.”
•
The objective of the commandment is reciprocal
fidelity between man and woman who assume life together, as a married couple.
This fidelity will be complete only if both know how to be faithful to one
another in thought and in desire and have a total transparency between them.
•
Matthew 5: 29-30: Tear out your eye and cut off
your hand. To illustrate what
Jesus
has just said, He states a hard word which He uses on another occasion when He
speaks of scandal to little ones (Mt 18: 9; Mk 9: 47). He says that if your
right eye should be your downfall tear it out and throw it away, for it will do
you less harm to lose one part of yourself than to have to have your whole body
thrown into hell. He affirms the same thing concerning the hand. These
affirmations cannot be taken literally. They indicate the radical nature and
the seriousness with which Jesus insists on the observance of this commandment.
It means that if something in your life is causing you to sin, get rid of it!
Today there are many things which might drive or tempt us
to sin, or to consider sin. It may be the Internet, a television show, money,
etc. These things expose us to consider sinning perhaps, and if so, are best
removed from our life in order "To be perfect as the Heavenly Father is
perfect!” (Mt 5: 48). To rephrase Jesus’ advice in today’s language: “if the TV
causes you to sin, or tempts you to sin, or teaches you how to sin, turn the TV
off!”
•
Matthew 5: 31-32: The question of divorce. The
man was permitted to give a certificate of divorce to the woman. In the
discourse of the community, Jesus will say that Moses permitted this because
the people were hardhearted (Mt 19: 8). “But I say to you: anyone who divorces
his wife, give her a certificate of divorce; but I say to you: anyone who
divorces his wife, except in the case of concubinage, exposes her to adultery,
and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” There has been much
discussion on this theme. Basing itself on this affirmation of Jesus, the
Eastern Church permits divorce in case of “fornication,” that is, of
infidelity. Others say that here the word fornication is the translation of an
Aramaic or Hebrew word zenuth which
indicated a marriage among people who were relatives, and which was forbidden.
It would not be a valid marriage. In the Western Church as well, this only
applies to valid marriages and where both parties are capable of understanding
what marriage means, that it is not just a “lifestyle.” Where the marriage is
not valid, there is not a divorce.
•
Leaving aside the correct interpretation of this
word, what is important is to see the objective and the general sense of the
affirmation of Jesus in the new reading which is done of the Ten Commandments.
Jesus speaks about an ideal which should always be before my eyes. The
definitive ideal is “to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:
48). This ideal is valid for all the commandments reviewed by Jesus. In the
rereading of the commandment “Do not commit adultery,” this ideal is translated
as transparency, honesty, and chastity between husband and wife. However,
nobody can say, “I am perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect.” We can never
merit the reward because we can never be perfect. What is important is to
continue walking on the road and always turn our eyes toward the ideal. At the
same time, as Jesus did, we have to accept people with the same mercy with
which He accepted people and directed them toward the ideal.
Personal Questions
•
How do you live in society today, with a
constant flow of advertising based on immodesty, and still live within the
advice of Jesus?
•
How is this to be understood: “to be perfect
like the Heavenly Father is perfect?”
Concluding Prayer
Of You my heart has said,
“Seek His face!” Your face, Yahweh, I seek; do not turn away
from me.
Do not thrust aside Your servant in anger; without You
I am helpless. Never leave me, never forsake me, God, my Savior. (Ps 27: 8-9)
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