Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
8th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle B)
Readings:
Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22
Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Mark 2:18-22
All Scripture passages are from the New American Bible unless designated 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. That is the reason 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 this Sunday's Readings: God's Covenant of Love
God has always defined His relationship with man through the
sacred bond of the covenant; from the first covenant with Adam and Creation to
the New and eternal covenant established in the blood Jesus Christ. Throughout
salvation history, obedience to God's covenants yielded divine blessings,
creating a family bond between God and His covenant children. However,
disobedience resulted in judgment and the imposition of sanctions or
anti-blessings intended to bring the covenant people to repentance and the renewal
of their covenant family bond with the Divine Father. In the Sinai Covenant
and the creation of the nation of Israel, God joined Himself to Israel in a
corporate covenant often expressed by the prophets as a marriage between Yahweh
and His Bride, Israel. The Law of the Ten Commandments is the bridal gift and wedding
band that binds Israel the Bride to Yahweh the Divine Bridegroom who is also
the Father of the children of a covenant family and the supreme King of the new
nation which becomes His holy vassal people.
In the First Reading, the prophet Hosea uses the symbolic imagery of marital union to expresses Yahweh's relationship with Israel and His willingness to forgive Israel's "infidelity." Marriage imagery was one of the four reoccurring images the Old Testament prophets used to describe Israel relationship or lack of relationship with God. Jesus, as God's supreme prophet, used the same symbolic examples during His ministry. In the New Covenant, the symbolic marital imagery transfers to Christ as the divine Spouse of His Bride, the Church (Mt 25:1-13; Eph 5:25; CCC 796).
In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist offers a hymn of praise that touches on most of the great theological themes of the Bible: sin and forgiveness, illness and health, oppression and vindication, God's transcendence and mercy. He testifies that God does not respond to us according to our sins; instead, He is willing to forgive our sins and to have mercy on us like a father who loves and understands the frailties of his children.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul writes that he is the minister of a new and more perfect covenant generated by the Holy Spirit; it is a covenant that gives life. He is probably thinking of Jeremiah's new covenant prophecy in Jeremiah 31:31-34 in which God promises a New Covenant written on hearts and not on stone tablets. Contrasting "letter" and "Spirit" Paul, says it is the "Spirit" that gives life and not the "letter" of the old covenant Law.
In the Gospel Reading, St. Mark presents a conflict story between Jesus and people who criticize Him and His disciples who do not fast like the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist. Using symbolic covenant imagery, Jesus tells two short parables to illustrate why it is not appropriate for His disciples to fast "at this time." He also shares something new about His identity.
In the first parable, Jesus is the bridegroom, and the wedding guests are those who have come to embrace His Gospel message of salvation. Jesus' point is that mourning rituals like fasting are not appropriate to a joyful wedding celebration, comparing a joyful wedding celebration to the joy of God the Son's visitation to humanity. With Jesus' Passion and death, it will become appropriate for His disciples to fast and mourn. In using the wedding imagery and applying it to Himself and His relationship with Israel, He is announcing His divinity. He is Yahweh, Israel's divine Bridegroom, who has come to forgive and take back His unfaithful Bride (the First Reading).
Next, Jesus tells a short, two-part parable, offering the comparison between old and new cloth and old and new wineskins. In both cases, the comparison is to the Old and New Covenants (see Heb 8:7-8, 13). The Old Covenant must be fulfilled and transformed into the promised new and eternal covenant (Jer 31:31; 32:40; 50:5). The Old Covenant in its present form is not capable of holding all the blessings and glory that is the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.
The First Reading Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22 ~ The Divine
Bridegroom's Love for His Bride
16b Thus says the
LORD: I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. [...]. 17b She shall respond there as in the days of
her youth when she came up from the land of Egypt. [...]. 21 I will espouse you to me forever: 22 I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the
LORD.
Our passage begins with Yahweh declaring His intention to take back Israel, His unfaithful Bride, who wandered far from Him in her "adultery" by worshipping the false gods of her neighbors. In verses 21-22, notice that the Lord speaks directly to Israel, promising His faithful covenant love [hesed] and fidelity, using the Hebrew word yada, "to know." In the language of the Bible, "to know" has a double meaning. Yada can either mean sexual intimacy or the intimacy of a covenant relationship, as in a marriage covenant, or the relationship between God and an individual or even a people bound to God in a corporate covenant, as in the Sinai Covenant or the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. It is the same word the prophet Jeremiah used in God's promise of a new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and Jesus used the same meaning when He said, "If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him" (Jn 14:7).
The bridal metaphor appears frequently in Old Testament Scripture to express the loving covenant relationship between God and His people (see Is 54:5; Ez 16:6-14; Jer 3:20; Hos 2:4-7, 20). Marriage imagery was one of the four reoccurring images the Old Testament prophets used to describe Israel relationship or lack of relationship with God. Jesus, as God's supreme prophet, used all four symbolic examples during His ministry. In the New Covenant, the symbolic marital imagery transfers to Christ as the divine Spouse of His Bride, the Church (Mt 25:1-13; Eph 5:25; CCC 796). See the chart, "Symbolic Images of the Old Testament Prophets."
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
Response: "The Lord is kind and merciful."
1 Bless the LORD, O
my soul, 2 and all my being, bless
his holy name. 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:
Psalm 103 is a hymn of praise that touches on most of the great theological themes of the Bible: sin and forgiveness, illness and health, oppression and vindication, God's transcendence and mercy. The psalmist begins with one of the most beloved phrases in the psalms: "Bless the LORD, O my soul ...." He praises God with his entire being for all the good things he has received from God who is the source of all the psalmist's blessings. In verses 3-4, he describes man's relationship with God in series of participles: God pardons iniquities, heals ills, redeems life, and crowns with kindness and compassion.
God's steadfast love and mercy (verses 4 and 8) shine in the psalmist's life like jewels in a crown and are the reason for his praise. He testifies that God does not respond to us according to our sins (verse 10). Instead, He is willing to forgive our sins (verses 10, 12) and to have mercy on us like a father who loves and understands the frailties of his children. Expressing the psalmist's same gratitude for the love and blessings of God, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "So splendid is the grace of God and his love for us that he has done much more for us than we can ever comprehend" (Exposito in Credum, 61).
The Second Reading 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 ~ The Spirit Gives Life
Brothers and sisters: 3:1 Do
we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, written on our hearts,
known and read by all, 3 shown to
be a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of
flesh. 4 Such confidence we have
through Christ toward God. 5 Not
that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from
us; rather, our qualification comes from God, 6 who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, nor
of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives
life.
St. Paul expresses his irritation by alluding to certain trouble-makers who are visiting Christian communities and taking pride in carrying their "letters of recommendation." Perhaps Paul has been questioned as to why he does not have similar letters. Such letters of recommendation were common in Paul's day (cf., e.g., Acts 9:2; 15:22-30). This question of "letters of recommendation" generates a series of metaphors in which Paul defends himself to the Christian community he founded using the word "letter":
St. Paul compares the letters "written in ink" with those "written on stone," a reference to the tablets of the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses in the Old Covenant. Perhaps those who have come to cause trouble for Paul are Judaizers who are zealous for the observance of Mosaic law. They may be causing trouble like those who visited the Christian community in Antioch and stirred up trouble by telling the Gentile Christians they weren't saved unless they were circumcised and became Jews (Acts 15:1-2). It was a disturbance that led to the Council of Jerusalem and the Apostles' decree that such observances of Mosaic Law were no longer binding on New Covenant Christians (Acts 15:6-35).
The reference to "hearts of flesh" (verse 3) is probably a reference to Ezekiel 36:26 in which the prophet Ezekiel contrasts the heart of flesh that the Spirit gives and the heart of stone that it replaces. The context of the Ezekiel passage was covenant renewal and purification that makes observance of the law possible, but Paul uses it as a contrast between the Old and New Covenants.
Paul says that he is the minister of a new and more perfect covenant generated by the Holy Spirit; it is a covenant which gives life. He is probably thinking of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in which God promises a New Covenant that will be written on hearts. This is Paul's "recommendation" and what he preaches. Contrasting "letter" and "Spirit," Paul says it is the "Spirit" that gives life and not the "letter" of the old covenant Law.
The Gospel of Mark 2:18-22 ~ The Parable of the
Bridegroom and the Parable of the Cloth and Wine Skins
18 The
disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to
him and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the
Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding
guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the
bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast on that day. 21
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he
does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into
old wineskins, otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and
the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."
This episode is the third conflict story in St. Mark's Gospel. The discipline of fasting was one of the three basic virtues of Old Covenant piety: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving (Tob 12:8-9; Sir 3:29/30; 29:8-13). Jesus also preached these same three acts of interior penance as part of the New Covenant obligations He required of His disciples. These three virtues express conversion in three ways:
The Law of the Sinai Covenant only required fasting once a year on the Feast of Atonement (Lev 16:29). However, the Pharisees, who considered themselves as especially pious observers of the Law, fasted twice a week on Mondays and Tuesdays as a sign of their piety (Lk 18:12; Didache, 8.1).
The Pharisees' criticism of Jesus mentioned in verse 18 may have prompted the people to question Jesus on the different rules of fasting observed by His disciples as opposed to St. John the Baptist's disciples and the Pharisees. Evidently, John the Baptist's disciples fasted frequently in imitation of John's ascetic lifestyle and as a sign of repentance (Joel 2:12-13).
The Parable of the Bridegroom and the Wedding Guests
19 Jesus
answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the
bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
A parable is a short story based on familiar life experiences
and used to teach spiritual lessons. The Old Testament prophets told parables
when the civil and religious leadership failed to listen to the voice of God
through His prophet. Jesus is God's supreme prophet, and the resistance of the
religious leaders to His message leads Him to speak in parables like God's Old
Testament prophets (see Ps 78:2; Mt 13:10-15; Mk 4:12).
Jesus tells two short parables. First, Jesus tells a short parable to illustrate why it is not appropriate for His disciples to fast at the present time. Jesus uses the same imagery found in the teachings of the Old Testament prophets when He answers their question with a rhetorical question (verse 19). It is a strategy He will often use to bring His listeners to a deeper understanding. He also shares something new about His identity. He is the bridegroom, and the wedding guests are those who have come to embrace His Gospel message of salvation. Jesus' point is that mourning rituals are not appropriate to a joyful wedding celebration, and He is comparing a joyful wedding celebration to the joy of God the Son's visitation to humanity.
20 But the
days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will
fast on that day.
It is when Jesus suffers His Passion that the "bridegroom is
taken away from them." With Jesus' Passion and death, it will become
appropriate for His disciples to fast and mourn. In this exchange, we get a
sense of the urgency of Jesus' mission. In using the wedding imagery and
applying it to Himself and His relationship with the covenant people, He is
again announcing His divinity. He is Israel's divine Bridegroom who has come
to take back His Bride (see the First Reading).
The Parable of the Cloth and the Wineskins
21 No one
sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness
pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into
old wineskins, otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and
the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."
Then Jesus tells a short, two-part parable, offering the
comparison between old and new cloth and old and new wineskins. In both cases,
the comparison is to the Old and New Covenants (see Heb 8:7-8, 13). The Old
Covenant must be fulfilled and transformed into the New Covenant. The Old
Covenant in its present form is not capable of holding all the blessings and
glory that is the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.
| Old versus New Cloth and Wineskins | Old Covenant versus New Covenant |
| Old cloth cannot be patched with new cloth. The new cloth will no longer fit properly when washed, and the new cloth shrinks. | The Old Covenant was necessary for its time to cover the covenant people in righteousness. However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a new garment that cannot become a patch for the Old Covenant. |
| Old wineskins have already stretched to capacity with the fermentation of the wine. If new wine is poured into old skins, the fermenting wine will expand and burst the skins, and both the wineskin and the wine will be destroyed. | The eternal gifts of the New Covenant cannot be contained within the limits of the Old Covenant. The eternal gifts of God's grace that fill the children of God in the New Covenant must fulfill and transform the Old Covenant. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2014 | |
The Old Sinai Covenant was good for its time. It was a tutor and a guide for the children of God, it was the first stage of revealed Law, and it was the preparation for the Gospel of salvation. However, the old had to make way for the new because it could not provide the path to eternal salvation nor could it give the gift of God the Holy Spirit (CCC 1962-70).
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture is quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Hosea 2:21-22 (CCC 2787*)
Psalm 103 (CCC 304*)
2 Corinthians 3:3 (CCC 700),
3:6 (CCC 859)
Mark 2:19 (CCC 796)
Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2015; revised 2018