Ordinary of the Mass
English Text
Latin Text
EPISTLE (Ephes. iv: 1- 6.) Brethren, I, a
prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in
which you are called. With all humility and mildness, with patience,
supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. One body and one spirit, as you are called in one hope
of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, and Father of
all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. Who is blessed for
ever and ever. Amen.
GOSPEL (Matt xxii: 35-46.) At that time, The
Pharisees came to Jesus, and one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him,
tempting him: Master, which is the great commandment of the law? Jesus said
to him: Thou shaft love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy
whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first
commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.
And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying: What
think you of Christ; whose son is he? They say to him: David's. He saith to
them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord; saying: The Lord said to
my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? If
David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more
questions.
“The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my
right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool.”
This phrase of our Lord, spoken to
the Pharisees, is from the Psalms of David. Psalm 109.
It is among those Psalms that are called “Messianic Psalms,” for even to the
Jews of our Lord’s time it was clear that the author was referring to the
expected Messias. It speaks of strength to be given for the conquest of
God’s enemies: “rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” It speaks
of the birth of the Messias to a woman, whom with hindsight we know to be
the Blessed Virgin Mary: “from the womb before the day star I have
begotten thee.” It speaks to the fact that this descendant of King
David would be both king and priest: “The Lord hath sworn, and he will
not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of
Melchisedech.”
Our Lord reminded the Pharisees of
this important bit of their own sacred literature as a way of encouraging
them to think about who He was. If He were the Messias, then by Jewish
prophecy, He would be someone to Whom the great Jewish King David referred
to both as “Lord” and priest. This was about as close to claiming to be the
Son of God without actually saying so in exact words. He had to make them
aware of His nature slowly for there were things to be done before He
exercised the priesthood of the order of Melchisedech at the Last Supper,
and before His Sacrificial offering on the Cross. Soon enough, the high
priest would demand of Him: “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou
tell us if thou be the Christ the Son of God.”
The answer, of course was in the affirmative, and for this He was awarded
not worship, but the agonizing death of the Cross.
In effect, the Scribes, Pharisees,
and Chief Priests were politicians. The held office—more by heredity than
by election—and they enjoyed holding office. They enjoyed the perks and the
respect that went along with the office. They enjoyed hearing “Hail,
Rabbi!” and they enjoyed the “first place at table, and the first chairs in
the synagogues” that their office brought them.
Our Lord threatened all that. Certainly, if they acknowledged Him as the
Messias, Whom even King David called “Lord,” their own positions would
shrink to nothingness. They also feared that the Romans would take notice:
“all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and take away our
place and nation.... it is expedient for you that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation perish not.”
Yes, and expedient for the politicians who wished to remain in office.
Quite correctly, they perceived that
our Lord would reform everything. The moral law would remain, but it would
have to be observed for the honor and glory of God, and not simply “to be
seen by men.”
For the moment they were spared the indignity that our Lord would replace
them—that He would establish His church upon the Rock who was Peter, a
simple fisherman, and no “exalted” politician like themselves—but
even that would become painfully obvious in a few brief months, when the
Apostles began teaching at the Temple and making converts to the Church, and
refusing to stop: “But Peter and the apostles answering, said: We ought
to obey God, rather than men. The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus,
whom you put to death....”
“We ought to obey God, rather than
men.” The Apostles knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and that God’s
teaching was superior to any other. Without it Judaism was incomplete, and
all other religions or philosophies were based on the opinion of men. Jesus
had founded one unique Church, and it possessed the complete body of the
true Faith.
Saint Paul enlarges upon this in
today’s epistle, written to the people of Ephesus from a Roman prison. “One
Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, and Father of all....” Paul had
brought the Faith to Ephesus eight or ten years earlier. He made converts
in the synagogue, as he usually did, but many of the Christians of Ephesus
were former pagans. He emphasized to them that they could not go back to
Judaism or paganism. There was only one Jesus Christ, and His teaching was
absolutely consistent, so if factions developed, those factions that tried
to substitute something else for the teaching of Jesus were simply
wrong. There was no room for discussion, for the truth was already
known and there was no room for “dialogue” with the proponents of error.
Paul was even more insistent with
the people of Galatia: “If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that
which you have received, let him be anathema.”
Even if Paul himself, “or an angel from heaven, [were to] preach a gospel
to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.”
“Anathema” is an interesting word. Originally the Greeks used it to denote
an offering set apart and made to their gods. Eventually, by
Saint Paul’s time, it came to mean “set apart from God and
from all those who practice the true Faith. In modern English
would might say “excommunicated,” or “banished” or “cursed,” or “exiled.”
Colloquially, “”let him be anathema” means “let him go to blazes!”
Saint Paul’s words ought to be
particularly important to us, for we live in an era when so many people
reject the idea of “objective truth” or “objective morality”—the era of
“political correctness,” in which no error and no moral failing is to be
corrected—an era, indeed, in which falsity and immorality are to be
celebrated, rather than corrected.
Certainly, there is always room for
courtesy. One does not have to go out of one’s way, looking for people with
other beliefs in order to insult them. There are even times when people of
differing belief can work together to get good things done in society. But
Catholics should never fear to speak the truth among people who want to hear
the truth. Catholics should never be afraid to correct those who
misrepresent the teachings of the Church in public or in private. Perhaps
of greatest importance, Catholics must never be afraid to practice their
Faith, and to actively oppose those who would deny us that right.
As Saint Paul would say, support
“one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond
of peace” and let anyone who would undermine that unity and peace “be
anathema!” Let him go to blazes!
