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Monday, June 06, 2005
St. Paul This Week
For the 10th week in Ordinary Time we have St. Paul's 2 Corinthians for the first reading and we stay with it through the 11th week. Below are the readings:
- Monday, 2 Cor. 1:1-7
- The beginning of the letter. Keywords are "comfort/consolation" on the one hand and "suffering, suffering with Christ, tribulations" on the other. The idea is that God comforts those who suffer for the sake of and in union with Christ so that these in turn can comfort others.
- Tuesday,. 2 Cor. 1:18-22
- Paul assures the Corinthians that he was not being insincere when he was prevented from coming to them. He is a man of his word, he explains, and this for one reason: because Jesus is the man of the Father's word, the Divine Affirmation which does not waver. The reading in fact presents Paul's words about Jesus being God's "Yes" to man, a "Yes" that never changes to "No."
- Wednesday, 2 Cor. 3:4-11
- Paul describes the new covenant and its superiority over the old one in terms of the glory that shown on the face of Moses. This theme of "glory" goes through to the reading on Friday. Here he speaks of the glory that shown on Moses' face, a glory however that fades. The allussion is to Exodus 34:29-35 where the glory of God was reflected on Moses' skin.
- Thursday, 2 Cor. 3:15-4:1,3-6
- Why can't the Jews discover Christ in the Law of Moses? The answer that Paul gives is clear: because Moses' glory required that a veil be put on his face (cf. Ex. 34:33.35). Not so for the Christians who contemplate the glory of the Lord with their faces unveiled.
- Friday, 2 Cor. 4:7-15
- The privilege of being able to see the glory of God shining on the face of Jesus is a treasure. Such a treasure however is held in earthen vessels to show that the privilege comes from God, not from men. So the apostle's mortality is exposed in persecution and hardship, showing in his body the death of the Lord so that it can become life for the Christian community. (See also 4:16)
- Saturday (Feast of St. Barnabas)
From Monday to Friday then, there would be a kind of continuous reading of 2 Corinthians. It will be broken on Saturday to make way for the selections of readings for the feast of St. Barnabas.