Daily Bible Readings Wednesday February 20 2008 2nd Week Lent Catholic Commentary

February 20 2008 Wednesday 2nd Week of Lent

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/022008.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Jeremiah 18:18-20
DR Challoner

18 And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremiah: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
19 Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
20 Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.

Responsorial Psalm 30:5-6, 14, 15-16 (Heb Ps 31)
DR Challoner

Thou wilt bring me out of this snare,
which they have hidden for me:
for thou art my protector.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit:
thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.
For I have heard the blame of many that dwell round about.
While they assembled together against me,
they consulted to take away my life.
But I have put my trust in thee, O Lord:
I said: Thou art my God.
My lots are in thy hands.
Deliver me out of the hands of my enemies;
and from them that persecute me.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 20:17-28
Haydock NT

17 And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said to them:

18 Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the Scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. 19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day he shall rise again.

20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping and asking something of him. 21 And he said to her:

What wilt thou?

She saith to him:

Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.

22 But Jesus answering, said:

You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the chalice that I shall drink?

They say to him:

We can.

23 He saith to them:

My chalice indeed you shall not drink: but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.

24 And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 25 But Jesus called them to him, and said:

You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them: and they that are greater, exercise power upon them. 26 It shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: 27 And he who would be the first among you, shall be your servant. 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.

Haydock Commentary Jeremiah 18:18-20

• Ver. 18. Prophet. Jeremiah will not cease to upbraid us with our transgressions; or we have guides as good as him, and we shall not be left destitute, as he would intimate.—Tongue, detraction; or make him suffer for what he says. In all the transactions of this prophet, Christ was foreshewn; (C.) and here, particularly, the Jews demand the crucifixion. S. Jer. W.
• Ver. 20. Remember, &c. This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon them in punishment of their crimes. Ch.—Jeremiah had prayed earnestly for the people. C. xiv. 17. H.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 20:17-28

• Ver. 18. Behold we go, &c. Jesus here, for the third time, foretells his death; (the first time, Mat. xvi. 21; the second time, Mat. xvii. 21.) Our salvation and happiness are owing to the death of Christ; neither is there any thing that more loudly calls for our gratitude than his sufferings and death. Jesus takes the 12 apart, and reveals to them the mystery of his passion. He had previously declared it in public, but in ambiguous terms, saying: destroy this temple, &c. A sign shall not be given, but the sign of Jonah the prophet; but here he manifestly expounds to his disciples the mystery: behold we go up to Jerusalem, &c. This discourse of our Saviour is remarkable for an energetic strength of expression. S. Chrys.—Jesus had repeatedly spoken to his apostles of his passion; but as much of what he had said had escaped their memory, now that he is upon the road to Jerusalem in company with his disciples, he brings it back to their recollection, to fortify them against the scandal they might take at his ignominious death. S. Jerome.
• Ver. 19. The third day he shall rise again. We may take notice, that as often as Christ mentioned his sufferings and death, he also joined his resurrection, that they might take notice, and not lose their faith. Wi.—Like the rest of the Jews, the apostles were so fully prepossessed with the idea that the Messiah would be immortal, that they could not understand what Jesus Christ said to them. He, however, did reveal these things, that, on a future day, recollecting how their Lord and Master had foreseen and foretold to them the most material circumstances relating to his passion and death, they might believe more firmly in him, and be convinced that he suffered of his own free choice. A.
• Ver. 20. Then came to him. Upon Christ’s informing his apostles that he should die and rise again, they conceived that the would immediately reign in Jerusalem with great glory and power; and it was this made the mother of the sons of Zebedee petition that they might take precedence, and be honoured by the other apostles. But Christ answers them that they knew not what they asked, for honours were to be bestowed not on relationship, but on merit: in like manner, the dignities of the Church are not to be conferred upon relatives, but upon the worthy. Nic. de Lyran.—On comparing the 27^th chapter of S. Mat. with the 15^th of S. Mark, it will appear that she was the same as Salome.—In S. Mark x. 35, we find that the sons themselves made this petition: both the sons and their mother might make it; at least the sons may be said to have done what they got their mother to desire for them; and therefore Christ directed his answer to them: you know not what you ask. You think, says S. Chrys. of temporal preferments, of honours, and crowns, when you should be preparing yourselves for conflicts and battles. Wi.—Our Lord suffers these occasional weaknesses in his apostles, that he might, from his instructions and corrections, render his doctrines more intelligible to them and to posterity. S. Jer.
• Ver. 22. The chalice. It is a metaphor signifying Christ’s sufferings and death. See Psal. x. 7. and lxxiv. 9. Isaiah. li. 17. The apostles replied, we can drink thy cup. Their answer shewed their readiness, but want of humility. Wi.
• Ver. 23.  Of my chalice indeed you shall drink. S. James was the first apostle that suffered martyrdom at Jerusalem. Acts xii. 2. And S. John at Rome was put into a cauldron of boiling oil, and banished into Patmos.—Is not mine to give you. The Arians objected these words against Christ’s divinity. S. Aug. answers that the words are true if taken of Christ, as he was man. The easier answer is, that it was not his to give to them, while they were in those dispositions of pride and ambition. SO that the distinction made, is not betwixt the Father and His eternal Son, as if the Father could give what the Son could not, but betwixt persons worthy, and not worthy of such a favour. It is true the word you, is now wanting in the Greek MSS. and must have been wanting in some of them in the fourth, or at least the fifth century, since we find them not in S. Chrysostom. S. Aug. also in one place omits it, but sometimes lays great stress upon it; Christ’s meaning being no more, than that heaven was not his to give them; that is, to the proud, &c. S. Amb. reads it; and what is still of greater weight, S. Jerome hath it in the text of the New Testament, which he corrected from the best Greek MSS. Wi.—In your present state there is no exemption of persons with God; for, whosoever is worthy of heaven, shall receive it as the reward of his merits. Therefore Christ answer them, it is not mine to bestow the kingdom of heaven upon you, because you are not yet deserving, on account of your pride in seeking to have yourselves preferred before my other apostles. But be ye humble, and heaven is prepared or you, as well as for all others, who are properly disposed. Nic. de Lyra.—Greatness in the next life will be proportioned to humility in this.
• Ver. 24. The ten … were moved with indignation against the two brethren, who had petitioned for the first and chief places. Wi.—The disciples understood from our Lord’s answer, that the request came in the first instance from the two disciples; but as they saw them much honoured by Christ, they did not dare openly to accuse them. S. Chry.—The other ten apostles were as much wrong in their anger and jealousy as the former two were in their untimely petition. In his answer to both, we cannot sufficiently admire the wonderful meekness of our blessed Saviour’s character. Jansenius.
• Ver. 25. Princes of the Gentiles lord it over them: tyrannize over those that are under them, by arbitrary and violent proceedings. Wi.—Our Lord wishing to extinguish the indignation conceived against the two brothers, lays before them the difference of secular and ecclesiastical princes, shewing that precedency in the Church is neither to be sought for by him who is not possessed of it, nor too eagerly loved by him who has it; for secular princes are lords of their subjects, keeping them under subjection, and govern them in every particular according to their will; but ecclesiastical princes are honoured with precedency, that they may be servants of their inferiors, administer to them whatever they have received from Christ, neglect their own convenience for the good of their neighbour, and be willing even to die for the spiritual good of their subjects. It is neither just nor reasonable, therefore, to desireth precedency in the Church, without these qualifications. No prudent man is willing to subject himself to such servitude and danger, as to take upon himself the obligation of having to dive an account of the wickedness and perversity of others, unless fearless of the divine judgments, he abuse his ecclesiastical superiority. S. Chrys.
• Ver. 28. A redemption for many; i.e. for all, as it is sometimes the style of the Scriptures. See S. Paul, 1 Tim. ii. 6. Wi.—Certain Puritans pretend from this part of holy Scripture, that all superiority is forbidden; but it is merely pride, ambition, and haughtiness, not superiority, that is here proscribed. Jesus Christ himself, as Son of man, was their and our Superior, Lord, and Master, notwithstanding his humility. B.—For the divine appointment of both civil and ecclesiastical government, see Rom. xiii. 2. and 1 Cor. xii. 28. Heb. c. xiii. 7, 17.