Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
7th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings:
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Psalm 103:1-13
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Luke 6:27-38
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Are You a Saul or a David?
The Law of the Sinai Covenant required the Israelites to
love and care for members of their covenant family, but they had no obligations
to do so for those outside the covenant (Lev 19:18). In our First Reading,
David demonstrated his obedience to that command when he chose not to kill King
Saul. Saul's jealousy of David's success in battle and his popularity with the
people grew into such a violent hatred that he vowed to take David's life. When
David had the opportunity to kill his enemy, he resisted the temptation. Instead,
he put his hope and trust in God because, as David reminds us in today's psalm,
"God redeems your life from destruction" when you are faithful, obedient to His
will, and trust Him with your life.
In the Psalm Reading, attributed to David, the psalmist gives thanks to God for His physical and spiritual blessings. He praises God with his entire being, giving thanks for all the good God has done for him. Then he lists the reasons not only for his gratitude and praise but why all people should be thankful and praise Yahweh. He testifies to the limitless extent of God's love and mercy in forgiving the sins of those who fear offending a loving God who casts out our sins: As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. And Paul writes that the depth of God's love for His covenant family is like the love human fathers have for their children. In fact, Father God is the model for human fatherhood.
That God will redeem the faithful is the promise in today's Second Reading. St. Paul writes that Jesus is the "second Adam." We bear the physical image of the first Adam, and like him in death, we will return to the dust of the earth. But through God's grace, Jesus, the "second Adam," has redeemed the faithful from spiritual death. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we bear the image of the "heavenly Adam" who will one day return to make us like Himself in the resurrection of body and spirit.
The story of the contrast between Saul and David prepares us for the Gospel Reading. In the New Covenant, Jesus not only fulfilled the old Law of the Sinai Covenant, but He transformed it. He intensified the demands of righteousness, internalized those obligations, and internationalized the covenant commands of justice, love, and compassion to include the entire human family and even our enemies. As a result, human passions like King Saul will not rule Jesus's disciples. Instead, they are to demonstrate that the love of God requires acts of love, compassion, and obedience like David, who feared offending God more than he feared what Saul could do to harm him. The truth is that we all have it in us to be either a Saul who hates or a David who forgives in gratitude for God's mercy and forgiveness toward him. The choice is entirely ours.
The First Reading 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 ~
David Spares Saul's Life
2 In those days,
Saul went down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel,
to search for David in the desert of Ziph. [...] 7 So David and Abishai went among Saul's soldiers by night and
found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the
ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him. 8 Abishai whispered to David: "God has delivered
your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one
thrust of the spear; I will not need a second thrust!" 9 But David said to Abishai, "Do not harm him,
for who can lay hands on the LORD's anointed and remain unpunished?" [...] 12 So David took the spear and the water jug
from their place at Saul's head, and they got away without anyone's seeing or
knowing or awakening. All remained asleep, because the LORD had put them into a
deep slumber. 13 Going across to an
opposite slope, David stood on a remote hilltop at a great distance from Abner,
son of Ner, and the troops. [...] 22 He
said: "Here is the king's spear. Let an attendant come over to get it. The LORD
will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness. 23 Today, though the LORD delivered you into my
grasp, I would not harm the LORD's anointed.
David demonstrates his faith in God and obedience to His commandments in two episodes involving David's sworn enemy, King Saul. Some men from Ziph went to Saul and offered to betray David. Their city was in the hill country of southern Judah (Josh 15:55) and gave its name to the Judean wilderness between their territory and the Dead Sea at En-Gedi (1 Sam 23:14-15, 24; 26:2). Saul's remorse for how he had treated David in an episode recounted in 1 Samuel 24:17-22, and his thankfulness for David sparing his life was short-lived. He was soon back to relentlessly hunting down David and his men with an army of three thousand men to David's six hundred. The Hill of Hachilah (1 Sam 23:19; 26:1, 3) is an unknown site located in the wilderness of southern Judah not far from Hebron. David hid from Saul there in 1 Samuel 23:19 and 26:1, and in our reading, the king pitched his camp there. Saul was looking for David, but David had better spies and located the king's camp first. Saul was in the company of his kinsman and army commander, Abner, son of Ner (see 1 Sam 14:50-51 and 26:5).
David and his nephew Abishai made their way into the king's camp in the dark, where they discovered him sleeping soundly. Abishai suggested that God had put Saul into David's hands and offered to kill his uncle's mortal enemy. Abishai's boast that it would only take one blow to "pin him to the ground" with Saul's spear recalls when Saul twice tried to "pin David to the wall" with the same spear (1 Sam 18:11 and 19:10). But David resists the temptation and forbids his nephew to raise his hand against Yahweh's anointed king of Israel. Abishai was shocked by his uncle's refusal, so David felt it necessary to explain that God would judge Saul, and his death was in God's hands. David feared offending God more than what his enemy could do to him or his family, and David, who was also God's anointed (1 Sam 16:1, 12-13), trusted God with his destiny (verse 10).
To offer proof that he could have taken Saul's life, David took Saul's spear and the water jug by the king's head. Perhaps David took the spear because he was fearful that it would be too much of a temptation for the impetuous Abishai to have it in his hands. It was similar to cutting a piece from Saul's cloak in the earlier episode (1 Sam 24:5, 12) when David also resisted the temptation to kill his enemy. No one in the camp awoke because God caused all the soldiers to remain sleeping. The Lord had again intervened directly to aid David.
David retreated to the safety of the other side of a ravine where he shouted from the prominence across the gorge to Saul's camp. David's shouting awakened the men in Saul's camp from not just a sound sleep but a God-induced stupor. David then lifted Saul's spear above his head as proof that he could have killed Saul but that he had shown mercy to the anointed king of God's people. David feared offending God more than he feared his enemy, and he loved God more than killing his enemy to save his own life. For his act of mercy, God would reward David. Saul would die in battle with the Philistines while David became Israel's greatest and most beloved king and the ancestor of the mother of the Redeemer-Messiah and her son, Jesus of Nazareth (Mt 1:1; Lk 1:32-33)!
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13 ~ Praise the
Mercy of the Lord
The response is: "The Lord is kind and merciful."
1 Bless the LORD, O
my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Response:
3 He pardons all
your iniquities, heals all your ills. 4 He
redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion.
Response:
8 Merciful and
gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. [...] 10 Not according to our sins does he deal with
us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
Response:
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put
our transgressions from us. 13 As
a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those
who fear him.
Response:
This psalm, attributed to David, gives thanks to God for His physical and spiritual blessings. The psalmist begins by praising God with his entire being and giving thanks for all the good God has done for him (verses 1-2). In verses 3-4, he expresses the reasons not only for his gratitude but why all people should give thanks and praise to Yahweh: He pardons all our sins, heals us of our ailments, and redeems our lives from the grave with "kindness and compassion" (verse 4) that shines like a crown. He then testifies in verses 8 and 10 that God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness, recounting the divine attributes that God revealed to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7.
Finally, in verses 12-13, he gives a summary of the limitless extent of God's love and mercy in forgiving the sins of those who fear offending Him, writing, 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. He testifies that Yahweh loves and has compassion for the human children in His covenant family in the same way a good human father cares for his beloved children.
The Second Reading 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ~ Bearing the
Image of Christ
45 It is written,
"The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life-giving
spirit. 46 But the spiritual was
not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man from heaven. 48 As
was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also
are the heavenly. 49 Just as we
have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly one.
All the descendants of the "first Adam" inherited his human nature in a body formed from the dust of the earth and destined to perish and return to dust (Gen 2:7). St. Paul wrote that Jesus is the "new Adam." He took on human nature in a weak and vulnerable physical body. However, in His resurrection from the grave, His divinity triumphed over His human nature. When He returns in glory, Jesus Christ will share His bodily resurrection with us in its perfection and immortality.
Commenting on verse 46, St. Augustine wrote: "It is called a spiritual body not because it has become a spirit but because it is in such a way subject to the spirit, to fit it for its heavenly abode that every kind of earthly weakness and imperfection is changed into a heavenly permanence" (De fide et symbol, chapter 6).
In this present life, the Holy Spirit calls Christians to reflect the image of "the heavenly One" by reproducing the life of Christ in our own lives. Having died to sin through the Sacrament of Baptism, the Christian is already raised with Christ to a new life (Col 3:1-4). St. Paul also wrote that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so that we too might walk in the newness of life. And since the Resurrected Christ shall never die again, we also must consider ourselves dead to sin so that we might live eternally with Him in glory (cf. Rom 6:4-11 and 1 Thess 5:10).
The Gospel of Luke 6:27-38 ~ The Law of Love
Jesus said to his disciples: 27
"But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you, 28 bless those
who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the
other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold
even your tunic. 30 Give to
everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not
demand it back. 31 Do to
others as you would have them do to you. 32
For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And
if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even
sinners do the same. 34 If
you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to
you? Even sinners lend to sinners and get back the same amount. 35 But rather, love your enemies and do
good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great,
and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the
ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 Stop judging and you will not be
judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be
forgiven. 38 Give and gifts
will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and
overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you
measure will in return be measured out to you."
Jesus came down from the mountain where He was teaching His disciples (Lk 6:12-16) to give a sermon to the crowds of people gathered below on the plain that sloped down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Lk 6:17). Our passage is the second part of Jesus's Sermon on the Plain, and, like the Beatitudes that He taught His disciples on the mountain in His Sermon on the Mount, it was a radically new teaching. Jesus asked the people not to react to others as their human nature told them, but rather to be moved by mercy and love in the same way God responds to human frailty (verse 36).
In verses 27 and 32-35, Jesus called the people to demonstrate a triad of works in showing love, the kindness of good deeds, and helping those in need. He gave them a simple maxim to guide their lives that is called by Christians "the golden rule" when He told them in verse 31, " Do to others as you would have them do to you." Then Jesus contrasted two kinds of rewards in verses 32-35: earthly and heavenly rewards. Finally, in verses 35-36, Jesus told the crowd to exercise the triad of goodness without calculating an award. God would reward those who act without expecting a return, but those who achieved an earthly compensation or recognition have already earned their reward.
Jesus told them: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." He repeated this teaching several times in His homilies:
As the children of our Divine Father through the spiritual rebirth of Christian baptism, we are expected to be like our Father in the way we behave and to pattern our lives after the life of the merciful, just, and loving Jesus Christ. A righteous and merciful God deserves righteous and merciful children.
Jesus sums up this teaching by saying: "37 Stop judging, and you will not be judged. Stop condemning, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." In this teaching, Jesus was not condemning us for judging sin in others; we must determine what constitutes sin to avoid falling into sin ourselves. Jesus gave the disciples instructions on dealing with a brother or sister within the faith community who sins in Matthew 18:15-17. And Proverbs 4:14-15 advises, Do not follow the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go. Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by (NJB).
Also, see what St. Paul wrote on the subject in Romans 2:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 5:12-13. We must judge sin to avoid it and condemn it, and we must be able to correct a fellow Christian who has fallen into sin to help them and protect both the Church and the quality of the Church's Christian witness. However, we judge the sin and not the sinner. We do not judge the hearts and souls of individuals because we do not have that authority. Only God can judge hearts and souls. As for those who sin outside the covenant, when the civil authorities condemn those sins under civil law, we must cooperate with them to protect society in general. While it is our Christian obligation to share the Gospel of truth with those who are not Christians and pray for their conversion, the final disposition of their souls is in God's hands.
When Jesus said, "37b Forgive and you will be forgiven," His teaching is that in fighting sin, we must begin with ourselves. We are hypocrites if we quickly judge a sin we discover in someone else when we are guilty of the same fault in our lives. When we recognize and condemn in someone else what is a failure in our lives without confessing our sins, our transgressions will doubly count against us at God's divine judgment because we were fully aware of our failures. We will also have no credibility if we try to help someone else whose life is torn apart by sin if our lives are just as tainted.
The answer to what we must do to live a righteous life pleasing to God is seeking His forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we experience the grace of God's mercy, we must not withhold that same forgiveness from others. The petition: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us in the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6:12) is followed by the same warning Jesus gave in Luke 6:37b when He said, "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions" (Mt 6:14-15). Each of us must be committed to forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ (Eph 4:32). St. Augustine wrote, "Whoever confesses his sins ... is already working with God" (In evangelium Johannis, 12).
37b Forgive and
you will be forgiven. 38 Give
and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down,
and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."
Notice that there is an implied warning in verses 37b-38.
Our lack of forgiveness to a brother or sister in the human family may
become a sin that hinders God's forgiveness for our transgressions. On the
other hand, if we are generous and merciful in forgiving those who have wronged
us, just as God has been merciful in forgiving our sins, Jesus makes us a
promise: "38 Give and gifts will
be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in
return be measured out to you." The result of our gift of unlimited love
and compassion for others is God's gift of abundant grace to us.
Catechism References (*indicates Scripture is quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Psalm 103 (CCC 304*)
1 Corinthians 15:45 (CCC 411*, 504*); a href ="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15?47">15:47 (CCC 504)
Luke 6:28 (CCC 1669*); 6:31 (CCC 1789*, 1970*); 6:36 (CCC 1458*, 2842)
Forgiveness of enemies (CCC 1825*, 1935, 1968*, 2303*, 2647, 2842*, 2843*, 2844*, 2845*)
Christ as the New Adam (CCC 359, 504*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2016; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.