June 26, 2025
Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 374
Reading 1
Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children.
She had, however, an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
Sarai said to Abram:
"The LORD has kept me from bearing children.
Have intercourse, then, with my maid;
perhaps I shall have sons through her."
Abram heeded Sarai's request.
Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan,
his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian,
and gave her to her husband Abram to be his concubine.
He had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant.
When she became aware of her pregnancy,
she looked on her mistress with disdain.
So Sarai said to Abram:
"You are responsible for this outrage against me.
I myself gave my maid to your embrace;
but ever since she became aware of her pregnancy,
she has been looking on me with disdain.
May the LORD decide between you and me!"
Abram told Sarai: "Your maid is in your power.
Do to her whatever you please."
Sarai then abused her so much that Hagar ran away from her.
The LORD's messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness,
the spring on the road to Shur, and he asked,
"Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from
and where are you going?"
She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai."
But the LORD's messenger told her:
"Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment.
I will make your descendants so numerous," added the LORD's messenger,
"that they will be too many to count.
Besides," the LORD's messenger said to her:
"You are now pregnant and shall bear a son;
you shall name him Ishmael,
For the LORD has heard you,
God has answered you.
This one shall be a wild ass of a man,
his hand against everyone,
and everyone's hand against him;
In opposition to all his kin
shall he encamp."
Hagar bore Abram a son,
and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Or
Abram told Sarai: "Your maid is in your power.
Do to her whatever you please."
Sarai then abused her so much that Hagar ran away from her.
The LORD's messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness,
the spring on the road to Shur, and he asked,
"Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from
and where are you going?"
She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai."
But the LORD's messenger told her:
"Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment.
I will make your descendants so numerous," added the LORD's messenger,
"that they will be too many to count.
Besides," the LORD's messenger said to her:
"You are now pregnant and shall bear a son;
you shall name him Ishmael,
For the LORD has heard you,
God has answered you.
This one shall be a wild ass of a man,
his hand against everyone,
and everyone's hand against him;
In opposition to all his kin
shall he encamp."
Hagar bore Abram a son,
and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is
good.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Who can tell the mighty deeds of the LORD,
or proclaim all his praises?
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed are they who observe what is right,
who do always what is just.
Remember us, O LORD, as you favor your people.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Visit me with your saving help,
that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
rejoice in the joy of your people,
and glory with your inheritance.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?'
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062625.cfm
Commentary on
Genesis 16:1-12,15-16
In spite of God’s promises, Abram is still without child by
his wife, Sarai. But among her staff was an Egyptian maidservant, called Hagar.
She may have been acquired while Abram was in Egypt (an anecdote not covered in
our readings).
Sarai is aware of how she has disappointed her husband by
not giving him a son, and she attributes this to God’s action. She then makes a
generous offer, suggesting to Abram that he “go in to [her] slave” so that
Abram might have sons through her:
You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing
children; go in to my slave; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.
Hagar would, in effect, act as a surrogate mother.
Sarai’s actions are all in keeping with the laws of the
time, as known from ancient extra-biblical sources. According to Mesopotamian
law, an infertile wife could offer one of her female slaves to her husband and
recognise the child born as one of her own. There will be a similar situation
with Rachel, the wife of Jacob, and Leah, Rachel’s older sister who was also a
wife to Jacob (see Gen 30:1-24).
So, after they had lived 10 years in Canaan, Sarai offers
her maidservant Hagar as a concubine to her husband. The servant very soon
becomes pregnant. As soon as she did so, she looked on her mistress with
disdain and contempt. Although a mere slave, Hagar was able to do what her
mistress had not been able to accomplish. As mother to Abram’s long-wanted son
she was not afraid of any reprisals from him.
Sarai then turns on Abram and blames him for Hagar’s
behaviour:
May the wrong done to me be on you!
Sarai had generously given her maid to Abram and now that
the maid is pregnant, she has only disdain for Sarai. Expressing hostility or
suspicion on her part, Sarai says to Abram:
May the Lord judge between you and me!
Abram’s response does not sound very admirable to our ears
today:
Your slave is in your power; do to her as you please.
Taking him at his word, the jealous and grieved wife treats
Hagar so badly that she flees the household.
She is found on a road by an “angel of the Lord” near a
spring out in the wilderness at Shur. At this time, the ‘angel’ is understood
as a manifestation of God in human form and not—as angels are later
understood—a created being distinct from God.
He asks her where she has come from and where she is going.
She says she has run away from her mistress Sarai. The angel tells her to go
back to Sarai and to submit to her mistress’s abusive behaviour. In return, he
promises that she will have descendants too numerous to count.
In addition, the messenger tells her that she is in fact
already pregnant. She is going to have a son and he is to be called Ishmael.
This is in answer to her prayer. In fact, the name Ishmael means either “May
God hear!” or “God has heard”.
However, this son is strangely foreseen to:
…be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.
Away from human settlements, Ishmael would roam the desert
like a wild donkey and the hostility between Sarai and Hagar will be passed on
to their descendants. Ishmael’s descendants will be the desert Arabs. In
describing them, Job asks:
Who has let the wild ass go free?…to which I have given
the steppe [wilderness] for its home….[and which] scorns
the tumult of the city. (Job 39:5-7)
But sure enough, when Abram was eighty-six years old, Hagar
bore a son to Abram and the son was named Ishmael.
It is clear that this story represents a more primitive
society with different social values. The having of an heir transcended any
duties of marital fidelity, a fact which Sarai clearly acknowledged. Her
primary responsibility as a wife was to produce an heir. Being a loving
marriage companion was secondary to this.
Hagar’s attitude to Sarai is certainly not commendable,
though it is understandable that a slave should feel good about being able to
do something so important for her master which his wife could not. Abram’s
attitude is not altogether commendable either. But he was, in his time and
culture, simply recognising the superior status of his wife over a slave—even
if that slave was to be (as he would have thought at the time) the mother of
his heir. Hagar was, in contemporary terms, ‘only a baby-bearer’.
In our own day, typically there is a great deal of turmoil
when a ‘mistress’ is present in a marriage. Extreme situations can occur, all
the way from reducing a wife to the status of a live-in household employee to
total amorality about sexual relations outside of marriage—and everything in
between. All too often, the victims who suffer the most from this turmoil are
the children of such relationships. In today’s passage, the seeds of future
problems are sown, and sadly, the same unfortunate outcomes still occur.
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Commentary on
Matthew 7:21-29
We come today to the final reading from the Sermon on the
Mount. Jesus spells out the essential quality of the true disciple. He or she
is not to be measured merely by external activities. It is not enough, for
instance, to keep saying “Lord, Lord…” That by itself will not bring a person
under the kingship of God. It will not be enough either to be able to perform
wonders like casting out demons or working other miracles, even in the name of
Jesus.
The true disciple is someone who is totally united to God in
heart, soul and mind. Such a person is one who listens to Jesus’ words and
carries them out. As we have said elsewhere, listening here means a number of
things:
- To
pay attention to what Jesus is saying to us; to listen with attentiveness.
- To
understand what is being said, as it is possible to listen without
understanding.
- To
accept fully and to assimilate into one’s being what one understands. It
is possible to hear clearly, to understand clearly, but not to accept or
assimilate. Children do that all the time!
When we have fully assimilated as part of our own thinking
what we have heard and understood, we will naturally act accordingly. It is
only when all this becomes a reality in our lives that we can say we are truly
disciples of Jesus and, as he says, that is the only sure foundation on which
to build our lives.
To live a Christian life only on the surface, that is, only
with words and externally conforming behaviour, is like building a house on
sand. Once we come under attack, we will collapse because we have no deep
foundation inside. We see that happening frequently when people who have lived
in an outwardly Christian environment move to a purely secular situation—and
fall away very quickly.
So let us be like that sensible man who builds his house on rock,
the firm foundation that is Christ, with the vision of Christ also the vision
of our own life, a life built on truth and love. With this we come to the end
of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew clearly indicates the end by saying:
Now when Jesus had finished saying these words…
He adds that Jesus’ teaching made a deep impression on the
people, mainly because he spoke with authority:
You have heard that it was said…But I say to you… (Matt
5:38)
That is, he spoke in his own name, unlike the scribes who could
only be interpreters of God’s Law.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Sermon on the Mount is
the first of five major discourses. It deals mainly with the qualities that are
to be found in the individual follower of Christ. Let us pray that those qualities
may be found increasingly in each one of us.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1125g/
Thursday, June 26,
2025
Opening Prayer
Father,
guide and protector of your
people, grant us an unfailing respect for your name, and keep us always in your
love.
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 7:21-29
Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone
who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the
one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in
your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to
them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone who
listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who
built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and
buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will
be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and
the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely
ruined.” When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his
teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel presents the last part of the
Sermon on the Mount: (a) it is not sufficient to talk and sing, it is necessary
to live and to practice (Mt 7:21-23). (b) the community constructed on the
foundation of the new law of the discourse on the mount will remain standing at
the moment of the storm (Mt 7:24-27). (c) the words of Jesus are a severe
judgment on the contemporary religious leaders, the scribes (Mt 7:28-29).
The end of the Sermon on the Mount presents some opposition
and a few contradictions which exist even in our time:
(a)
people who continually speak of God, but who do
not do God’s will. They use the name of Jesus, but do not practice a
relationship with the Lord in their life (Mt 7: 21).
(b)
There are people who live in the illusion of
working for the Lord, but on the day of encounter with Him, they will discover,
tragically, that they have never known Him (Mt 7: 22-23).
The two last scenarios of the Sermon on the Mount, the house
built on the rock
(Mt 7: 24-25) and the house built on sand (Mt
7: 26-27), illustrate these contradictions. By means of these, Matthew
denounces, and at the same time tries to correct, the separation between faith
and life, between speaking and doing, between teaching and practicing.
• Matthew
7: 21: It is not sufficient to speak, it is necessary to practice. What is
important is not to speak of God in a beautiful way or to know how to explain
the bible well to others, but rather to do the will of the Father, and in this
way, be a revelation of His face and of His presence in the world. Jesus made
the same recommendation to the woman who praised Mary, His Mother. Jesus
answered: “Blessed rather are those who listen to the Word of God and put it
into practice” (Lk 11: 28).
• Matthew
7: 22-23: The gifts should be at the service of the Kingdom and the community.
There were people with extraordinary gifts, for example the gift of prophecy,
of exorcism, of healing, but they used these gifts for themselves, outside the
context of the community. In the Day of Judgment, they will hear a hard
sentence from Jesus: “Away from Me all evil doers.” Evil is the opposite of
justice. It is to do with Jesus what the doctors did with the law: to teach and
not to practice (Mt 23: 3). Paul will say the same thing with other words and
arguments: “Though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and
knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains, if I am
without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I
possess, and even give up my body to be burned, if I am without love, it will
do me no good whatever.” (1Cor 13: 2-3).
• Matthew
7: 24-27: The parable of the house built on the rock. The final conclusion of
the Sermon on the Mount is to open oneself and to practice. Many people entrust
their security to extraordinary gifts or to observance. But their true security
does not come from prestige or from observance. It comes from God! It comes
from the love of God who has loved us first (1 Jn 4: 19). His love for us,
manifested in Jesus, exceeds everything (Rm 8: 38-39). God becomes our source
of security when we seek to do His will. There He will be the rock which
supports us in the moments of difficulty and storm.
• Matthew
7: 28-29: To teach with authority. The Evangelist closes the Sermon on the
Mount saying that the crowds admired the teaching of Jesus, “because He taught
with authority, and not like the scribes.” The result from the teaching of
Jesus is a critical understanding of the people in regard to the religious
authority of the time. His simple and clear words resulted from His experience
of God, from His life dedicated to the Father’s plan. People admired and
approved the teaching of Jesus.
Community: the house built on the rock. In
the Book of Psalms, we frequently find the expression: “God is my rock and my fortress…
My God, my rock, my refuge, my stronghold, my saving strength…” (Ps 18: 3). He
is the defense and the strength of the one who seeks justice (Ps 18: 21, 24).
The people who trust in this God, become in turn, a rock for others. Thus, the
Prophet Isaiah invites people in the exile saying: “Listen to me you who pursue
saving justice, you who seek Yahweh! Consider the rock from which you were
hewn, the quarry from which you were dug. Consider Abraham your father and
Sarah who gave you birth” (Is 51: 1-2). The prophet asks people not to forget
the past. The people should remember that Abraham and Sarah, because of their
faith in God, became rock, the beginning of the People of God.
Looking toward this rock, the people should
acquire courage to struggle and to escape from slavery. Matthew also exhorts
the community similarly to have rock as foundation (Mt 7: 24-25) and thus, they
themselves can be rock to strengthen their brothers and sisters in their faith.
This is the sense of the name which Jesus gave to Peter: “You are Peter and on
this rock I will build my Church” (Mt
16: 18). This was the vocation of the first
community, called to unite itself with God, the living rock, so as to become
also a living rock, because they listen and put into practice the Word. (Ps 2:
4-10; 2: 5; Ep 2: 19-22).
Personal Questions
•
How does our community seek to balance prayer
and action, prayer and practice, to speak and to do, to teach and to practice?
What could improve in our community, so that it will be a rock, a secure and
welcoming house for all?
•
To be rock for another is also to be in truth.
Do I, and my community, know and understand Church teaching and the bible well
enough and in truth such that I and we can be rock for others who need help in
their Faith?
•
There is another kind of rock. The rock in the
parable of the sower. The seed (the Word) could not grow on rock. Do I read,
learn and grow from the Word and from the saints that have given example before
us, and from Church teaching? Am I like the rocky ground in the parable where
the seed dries up or am I like a strong rock who gives stability to my brothers
and sisters?
Concluding Prayer
Help us, God our Savior,
for the glory of Your name;
Yahweh, wipe away our sins, rescue us for the sake of Your
name. (Ps 79:9)
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