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20th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)

Readings:
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Psalm 40:2-4, 17
Hebrews 12:1-4
Luke 12:49-53

Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), NABRE (New American Bible Revised St. Joseph Edition), 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, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained 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: Perseverance in Adversity
It is part of human nature to avoid what is unpleasant, whether it is undeserved suffering or punishment deserved for bad behavior. We want to hear our priests preach against the consequences of sin, but we do not want them to challenge us about the sins in our lives. It is also difficult for some of us to stand up for our faith and defend the teachings of the Church when those teachings are not "politically correct," according to the judgments of modern society. God asks us to persevere in adversity and to take a stand for what is righteous according to His Word. He promises that the eternal reward will outweigh any temporary discomfort.

In the First Reading, the prophet Jeremiah's enemies imprisoned him in a cistern as a punishment for prophesizing Jerusalem's impending conquest and telling the people not to resist the Babylonian invaders. Jerusalem's coming destruction was God's divine judgment against her people for their many sins, including their acts of injustice, oppression of the poor, and disobedience to the commands of the Law in Yahweh's covenant. Despite his many persecutions, Jeremiah remained true to his mission to preach repentance and the acceptance of God's judgment.

Our Responsorial Psalm reading is a prayer that might have come from Jeremiah as he lay in the mud at the bottom of the cistern. The psalmist combines his lament concerning his sufferings with his thanks that God acts to defend His faithful servants, even in extreme situations. The "pit of destruction" and the "mud of the swamp" are poetic metaphors for the world of death that the psalmist sees opening before him. He believes God hears him and describes his rescue as being "raised up" or resurrected. He praises God in a "new song" in response to the new action of God coming to his deliverance. The message for us is that the psalmist's ability to give thanks even in his suffering is not purely a human response but a divine gift of God's presence when suffering is accompanied by faith and humble perseverance.

In the Second Reading, the inspired writer (believed to be St. Paul) used the metaphor of the difficulties when competing in a foot race. His point was to encourage the faithful not to follow the easy path but rather to make, if necessary, the painful decision to persevere in following the Gospel of salvation. He compares a Christian's life to a sports arena with the faithful participating in a race. Our audience is "a cloud of witnesses," numbered among the Communion of Saints who are watching us from Heaven and urging us on. They are praying for our victory over the forces of evil in the world as we complete the contest that will end in the reward of eternal salvation. The passage reminds us that we are never truly alone, but always have those who care about us and pray for us in our struggles.

In our Gospel Reading, Jesus presented His disciples with a difficult lesson. He told them that He had not come to bring peace but division in families and nations. Everyone must choose between Him and the world; there is no middle ground. Then, Jesus made a dramatic statement, saying He had come "to set the earth on fire!" In the Old Testament, fire was symbolic of purification, discernment, judgment, and a manifestation of the presence of God. St. John the Baptist warned that the Messiah was coming with "the Holy Spirit and fire" (Lk 3:16), and in Scripture, it is one of the most expressive symbols of the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit. In our Gospel reading, the fire Jesus referred to could be the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Or, His words might also refer to the refining and purifying fire that Jesus would light in His suffering, death, and Resurrection. In that series of events, He ignited and transformed the New Covenant people of God to pick up their crosses and follow Him in bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the Holy New Covenant Universal Church.

Today's readings are relevant to us because we are making the same choices as Jeremiah, St. Paul, and Jesus's disciples in practicing our obedience of faith by serving the mission to which God has called us despite personal suffering. Are we willing to commit ourselves to Christ and His Church at the cost of our family relationships and secular standing, or do we deny Christ by valuing what is material, secularly acceptable, and temporal rather than eternal? The decision to submit to Christ may be painful for us in this life, but pain and suffering will count toward eternal salvation for both the ministerial priesthood (who bear the responsibility of teaching the Word of God and His Law) and the priesthood of believers. Our Divine Father will reward us, and our heavenly brothers and sisters will applaud us as they welcome us into the everlasting beatitude of Heaven.

The First Reading Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 ~ The Suffering and Imprisonment of the Prophet Jeremiah and his Salvation
In those days, the princes said to the king: 6 "This man [Jeremiah] ought to be put to death [the princes said to the king]; he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; he is not interested in the welfare of our people, but in their ruin." 5 King Zedekiah answered: "He is in your power"; for the king could do nothing with them. 6 And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, which was in the quarters of the guard, letting him down with ropes.  There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. [...] 8 Ebed-melech, a court official, went there from the palace and said to him: 9 "My lord king, these men have been at fault in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, casting him into the cistern.  He will die of famine on the spot, for there is no more food in the city." 10 Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite to take three men along with him, and drew the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.

Jeremiah was God's prophet to the covenant people of Judah before the Babylonian conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 587/6 BC. The King had ordered his men to detain the prophet in the quarters of the guards (Jer 37:21; 38:13). Jeremiah's imprisonment was a punishment for prophesying Jerusalem's impending doom and telling the people not to resist the Babylonians since the coming destruction was God's divine judgment on Judah for her people's many sins, including their covenant disobedience. The princes of Judah went to King Zedekiah, complaining that Jeremiah's continued utterances of destruction were demoralizing the soldiers and that something must be done to stop him. They feared deliberately shedding the blood of one of God's prophets, but they saw letting him die of starvation in the cistern as a viable solution to their problem. The king was too weak to oppose them; therefore, he agreed.

It is significant that Jeremiah's savior, Ebed-melech, whose name means "servant of the king," was a Gentile eunuch and an official in the court of King Zedekiah. Eunuchs were the court officials who usually served the royal harem. It was forbidden by the Law of Moses to physically alter a male covenant member to make him a eunuch. Therefore, he was probably purchased as a castrated slave. Scripture also identifies him as a Cushite. In the Bible, "Cushite" is a term used to identify Midianites because of their darker skin (Num 12:1; Hab 3:7). However, in ancient literature, it was a term applied to Ethiopians, and in describing the eunuch, it was probably intended to identify a dark-skinned individual. In this Biblical period, it was likely that Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian.

Ebed-melech took three men along with him, and drew the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die. Jeremiah persevered in faith, and Ebed-melech risked possible persecution by speaking up to save God's prophet. That he took "three men" with him should not be ignored. The number three in Scripture usually signifies some significant act in God's divine plan. Just as God planned to rescue Jeremiah from "the pit," it would also be God's plan that Christ's sacrifice would save humanity from the "pit" of sin and the corruption of the grave (see the documents "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture," and "The Significance of the Third Day."

Do not miss the irony that the king of Judah and the covenant people rejected God's holy prophet, but a Gentile eunuch was willing to risk his life to save him. God rewarded Ebed-melech's courageous act in saving Jeremiah by sending His prophet with the promise to spare the eunuch's life when the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem (Jer 39:15-18). The Law of the Sinai Covenant forbade foreigners who were non-covenant members and sexually altered eunuchs from entering or offering worship within the Temple's inner courts. Eunuchs were physically damaged in the same way an animal with the same deformity was not suitable for sacrifice (Lev 22:24), nor could a descendant of Aaron who had the same physical defect become a priest (Lev 21:20). The reason for this prohibition was that one who approached God in the inner courts of the Temple had a special share in God's sanctity. A physical defect would be an affront to God, who created the natural world without imperfections.

However, two centuries earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, God promised that, in the Messianic Era, Gentiles and eunuchs would become purified and welcomed to offer worship and praise to Yahweh: No foreigner adhering to Yahweh should say, "Yahweh will utterly exclude me from his people." No eunuch should say, "Look, I am a dried-up tree." For Yahweh says this: "o the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose to do my good pleasure and cling to my covenant, I shall give them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I shall give them an everlasting name that will never be effaced" (Is 56:3-4 NJB).  That "everlasting name" is Jesus Christ: Only in him is there salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12). Ebed-melech was indeed a "servant of the king" but not of the human king of Judah. His action in taking the risk to save God's prophet demonstrated that his true allegiance was to Yahweh the Divine King.

Responsorial Psalm 40:2-4, 17 ~ The LORD is Our Help
The response is: "Lord, come to my aid!"

2 I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me.
Response:
3 The LORD heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp; he set my feet upon a crag [upon a rock]; he made firm my steps.
Response:
4 And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. Many shall look on in awe and trust in the LORD.
Response:
17 Though I am afflicted and poor, yet the LORD thinks of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, hold not back!
Response:

Perhaps this is the psalm Jeremiah prayed as he lay in the mud deep in the pit of the cistern. This psalm combines thanksgiving (verses 2-13) with a lament (14-18), which also appears in Psalm 70. Psalm 40 is an extension of the prayer contained in the previous psalm and acknowledges that God is willing to take action in extreme situations (Ps 39:12-13). The "pit of destruction" and the "mud of the swamp" are poetic metaphors for the world of death that the psalmist sees opening before him. He contrasts that imagery with his feet being set upon firm ground, symbolizing security and strength. The psalmist describes his rescue in terms of being "raised up" or resurrected, and he can now praise God in a "new song" of praise in response to the new action of God coming to his deliverance (verses 2-4).

In verse 17, the psalmist expresses confidence that God remembers and loves him in his affliction and poverty. He makes the petition that in such circumstances, God will not "hold back" His divine help. The message for us is that the psalmist's ability to give thanks even in his suffering is not purely a human response to God but a divine gift when we endure suffering with faith and perseverance. On the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the liturgy includes verses 6-10 of this psalm to show the Blessed Virgin Mary's dedication to her mission as the Mother of the Savior.

The Second Reading Hebrews 12:1-4 ~ Perseverance when faced with Suffering
1 Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us 2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader, and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. 3 Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

Sports events have always been popular in ancient times and today. The inspired writer, who most of the Church Fathers identify as St. Paul, used sporting language and the metaphor of a race to encourage the faithful not to follow the easy path but rather to make, if necessary, the painful decision to follow Christ and His Gospel of salvation.

St. Paul had a fondness for athletic metaphors in his letters. He often mentioned the Greco-Roman sports of wrestling, boxing, and racing as examples of Christian perseverance and endurance:

In this passage, he tells us that life is like a sports arena, and we are those who participate in the race. Our audience is "a cloud of witnesses" composed of those numbered among the Communion of Saints who watch us from Heaven, urging us on to victory.

St. Ephraim and other Church Fathers recognized that hope and faith must accompany the call for perseverance in the face of suffering to sustain the Christian in any trial. To have the strength to persevere, Christians must divest themselves of anything that can hinder them, like the love of material goods, pride, or selfishness. And Christians must also remember that not all trials and sufferings are the work of men but also the work of the great adversary, Satan. St. Ephraim wrote: " 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses about the weight of our life, that is, about the fact that we have ahead of us a cloud of sad afflictions, which lead many who trust in Christ and die for him to honor, 'let us lay aside everything' from us ... And 'Let us run with perseverance the race that is set for us'; not only by our persecutors but by the devil himself" (St. Ephraim, Commentary on Hebrews 12).

Interestingly, the inspired writer uses the Greek words nephos, "cloud," and martyroi, "witnesses." The Greek words martureo, marturia, martus, and martyroi, usually transliterated as "martyr" or "martyrs," are also translated as "witness/witnesses." In the Greco-Roman world, martus/martyroi referred to:

During the periods of Christian evangelism and persecution, this definition was applied to those who gave a witness to their faith in Jesus Christ either verbally or by shedding their blood in martyrdom. Witnessing their belief in their suffering and death, they become witnesses/martyrs for Jesus Christ (i.e., see the use of martyr/witness in Mt 24:14; Acts 1:22; 5:32; 22:15). They believed what St. Paul wrote to children of God in the Church in Rome: And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory (Rom 8:17 NJB).

The cloud of witnesses in verse 1 are the saints who have completed their "race" and are now "witnesses" to the struggles and victories of their younger brothers and sisters completing their contest to enter the gates of Heaven. Dr. Craig Koester notes that the word nephos, "cloud," was a common Greco-Roman metaphor for a large group of people (Anchor Bible Commentary, Hebrews, page 522). However, Biblically, the word "cloud" is often associated with a form of the visible manifestation of God: Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear when I speak to you and believe you ever after'" (Ex 19:9 NJB). Cloud imagery associated with the presence of Yahweh appears in numerous Scripture passages, for example:

The word "cloud" is also frequently associated with the visible manifestation of God in the Shekinah or Glory Cloud, the revelation of God's heavenly throne and His "chariot" by which He makes His glorious presence known to man. Therefore, in this passage, it is reasonable to assume that the martyrs (a Greek word used by Christians to mean the "witnesses" of Jesus Christ), along with the heavenly angels (Gen 28:12; Dt 33:2 in LXX; Ps 68:17-18; Jn 1:51), form the "Glory Cloud" as those who live in the presence of God.

12:1b let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us 2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.  For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame.
The inspired writer encouraged his audience to accept that Jesus Christ is the leader and perfecter of faith, meaning our faith's beginning and completion. In His Resurrection, Jesus already achieved our victory because He "perfects" us by imparting, through Christian baptism, His divine life and sonship. Our journey of faith, the inspired writer suggests, is very like a running contest in the Greco-Roman arena in which strength, endurance, and discipline were necessary for victory. To persevere and endure to the end of our "race," we must strenuously make the effort to follow Jesus's example: For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God (verse 2).

In the mid-5th century, during a period of Christian persecution, Bishop Theodoret urged his flock to remain faithful amid sufferings by following Jesus's example. He admonished his congregation by reminding them: "He [Jesus] could have avoided suffering, he is saying, had he so chosen; but he put up with the suffering for the benefit of all. The Savior's joy is the salvation of human beings; for it, he endured the suffering, and after the suffering, he is seated with the Father who begot him" (Theodoret, Bishop of Cry c. 393-466, Interpretation of Hebrews, 12). Bishop Theodoret's point was if Jesus could endure the shame and disgrace of the Cross for us so that He could have joy in giving the gift of salvation to human beings, can we not withstand our sufferings for the sake of the same joy of receiving His gift and joining Him in the Father's heavenly Sanctuary?

The Catechism warns believers to expect the testing of our faith on our journey to salvation: "Even though enlightened by him in who we believe, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test.  The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith.  Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and death seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.  It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who 'in hope... believed against hope'; to the Virgin Mary, who, in 'her pilgrimage of faith,'  walked into the 'night of faith' in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: 'Therefore, since we share surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith'" (CCC 164-65).

We often forget that the crucifixion was intended to shame and disgrace Jesus. They were public events in which the victims were subjected to scourging and torture before the crucifixion. In addition to scourging and ridicule in the crucifixion procedure, the victim was stripped naked with nails pounded through the wrists or hands and ankles so that the victim hung suspended from his own torn flesh. Tormented and reviled, the victim continued to suffer as he hung on the cross, but the duty of the executioners was to prolong the victim's life for several days until he died from blood loss or shock. The goal was to achieve the greatest horrific effect on the public at large as a lesson to submit to the power of the state and avoid such a punishment. In the case of a Jewish victim, there was the added disgrace that those "hung on a tree" were considered cursed by God under Jewish Law and rejected by the covenant people (see Dt 21:22-23). Jesus was fully human and divine, and in His humanness, He despised the punishment inflicted on Him. Yet, in His divine love, He fully submitted to the degradation inflicted upon Him for the sake of humanity's salvation.

2b and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
This verse is the fifth time the inspired writer of Hebrews has either quoted or referenced this passage from Psalm 110:1 (Heb 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). Jesus quoted this passage coupled with Daniel's vision of the divine Messiah in Daniel 7:13 to the Jewish Law Court (the Sanhedrin) at His trial. The combination of these two Messianic quotes from Sacred Scripture condemned Him: Then the high priest said to him, "I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Jesus said to him in reply, "You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'" Then the high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has blasphemed!  What further need have we of witnesses?  You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?" They said in reply, "He deserves to die!" (Mt 26:62-66, emphasis added; also see Mk 14:61-64).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies the significance of the reference to being "seated on the Father's right hand": "Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of man: 'To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.' After this event, the Apostles became witnesses of the 'Kingdom [that] will have no end'" (CCC 664).

3 Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In Hebrews 12:3, the inspired writer asked his audience and us to remember Jesus's ministry, during which He faced opposition from the Jewish authorities who challenged His teaching. They demanded to know by what authority He taught since He had no formal training in the Law of Moses and held no official religious office. There was also the "opposition" from the sinners who lied at His trial and pagan Gentiles who crucified Him. The reason the inspired writer gave for Jesus submitting to such abuse was that He provided an example for us: in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Jesus's example of persevering in doing God's work through the suffering of His rejection, in the pain of His Passion, and the victory of His Resurrection was to give Christians courage when they faced adversity. If Christians unite their suffering and death to Christ's suffering and death, their pain becomes meaningful and redemptive, the kind of suffering that counts toward their salvation. They too are promised Resurrection if they remain faithful.  However, the inspired writer reminded his audience in Hebrews 12:4 that they have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. The emphasis is on the "not yet." If Jesus endured to the extent of shedding His blood, who are you to complain when you have not yet offered such a sacrifice? 

The message for us is that sins and the lure of the material world hinder us on our way to the finish line of eternity, and we must shed and discard those burdens weighing us down if we are to finish the race. We must focus on Jesus, who inspires us and perfects our faith and self-confidence. He gives us the reason for our efforts, the promise of Heaven! Jesus endured suffering to complete His mission so that He could prepare a home for us when we cross the finish line of life. We must take up our crosses and follow Him in both suffering and glory: The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory (Rom 8:16-17 NABRE).

The Gospel Reading Luke 12:49-53 ~ Jesus's Mission a Cause of Division
49 Jesus said to his disciples: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  50 There is a baptism with which I must be baptized and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!  51 Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  52 From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

In a series of teachings on His ministry in verses 36-40, 43, and 45-46, Jesus made symbolic references to the "coming of the master," a "burglar," and the "Son of Man." Now, in this passage, He spoke openly about His own "coming" in verses 49 and 51.

In verse 49, Jesus told the disciples that He has come to set the earth on fire! In the Old Testament, fire is sometimes:

St. John the Baptist told the Jews that the Messiah was coming with the Holy Spirit and fire (Lk 3:16). In Scripture, fire is one of the most expressive symbols of the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit (CCC 696; Acts 2:1-4). In this case, the fire Jesus spoke of might be the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is also possible He was referring to the refining and purifying fire that Jesus will light in His death and Resurrection to ignite and transform the New Covenant people of God and bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth (the Universal Church).

50a There is a baptism with which I must be baptized...
The baptism by which Jesus "must be baptized" is His death on the Cross for the sins of humanity.

50b and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
The Greek word is also translated as "fulfilled," "finished," "accomplished," or "completed." Jesus told the Jews in His Sermon on the Mount that not one part of the Law of the Sinai Covenant would become invalid until "all these things are fulfilled" in Matthew 5:17-18. Jesus would announce to the world that His mission and the Old Covenant Law were "fulfilled" or "accomplished" just before He gave up His life on the Altar of the Cross when He announced: "It is fulfilled" (Jn 19:28-30 NAVRE).

The word "baptism" in verse 50 means "immersion" and was a part of the old Sinai Covenant rituals of purification for what was "unclean" that made one bodily impure and unfit for worship. When St. John baptized people in the Jordan River, he immersed them in the water as they symbolically died to their old sinful lives and then arose from the water restored and purified. Jesus's death on the Cross symbolically demonstrated this same "immersion/baptism." Jesus called His death a "baptism" because He would fall into physical death, but He would also rise victorious, never to die again! In Romans 6:4, St. Paul made a similar comparison to Christian baptism. He told the Roman Christians and us that in the Sacrament of Christian baptism, we are immersed in Christ's death as we die to sin and are raised out of the waters to a new life of victorious grace.

The Jews were looking for another Moses or David who would unite Israel and lead the people to victory against the Roman oppressors. Jesus's warning in this difficult teaching was that His Gospel message would not unify. The response would either be acceptance or rejection and become a source of conflict and division for the covenant people, even within families. Jesus was bringing "liberation" from sin and death by opening up a fountain of baptism to all humanity. He opened that fountain to all men and women in His self-sacrificial offering on the altar of the Cross. The blood and water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Christ are types of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. They become "the sacraments of new life" in which Christians are "born from water and the Spirit," becoming purified to become sons and daughters of God and citizens of the Kingdom of God (see CCC 1225; Jn 3:3-5; 19:34).

This teaching is relevant to us today because we are making the same choices. Do you commit yourself to Christ and His Church at the cost of your family relationships and society's acceptance, or do you deny Christ? Do you believe in the miracle of the Eucharist? Or do you walk away from the promise like some of Jesus's disciples in John 6:60, 66? Or do you, like Judas, stay but not believe? The decision to submit to Christ may be painful for us in this life, but that pain and suffering will count toward our eternal salvation. If we persevere, our Divine Father will reward us, and we will win the approval of our heavenly brothers and sisters when we join our eternal family in Heaven.

Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture is quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Psalm 40:2 (CCC 2657*)

Hebrews 12:1-2 (CCC 165); 12:1 (CCC 1161, 2683*); 12:2 (CCC 147, 664*); 12:3 (CCC 569*, 598*)

Luke 12:49 (CCC 696); 12:50 (CCC 536*, 607*, 1225*, 2804*)

Christ, a sign of contradiction (CCC 575*, 576)

A disciple should witness to the faith with boldness (CCC 1816*)

Giving testimony to the truth (CCC 2471*, 2472*, 2473-2474)

Our communion with the saints (CCC 946-948, 949*, 950, 951*, 952*, 953*, 954*, 955, 956*, 957*, 1370, 2683*, 2684*)

Sacred images remind us of the "cloud of witnesses" (CCC 1161*)

Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.