Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
12th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings
Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1
Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
Galatians 3:26-29
Luke 9:18-24
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 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: The Messiah Promised and Revealed
In the First Reading, the sixth century BC prophet Zechariah
receives an oracle from God concerning the future of a spiritually restored
Israel. The Oracle is a prophetic vision of the "Last Days" (the final age of humanity)
that promises a suffering Messiah will lead the people to conversion and
purification, recalling the Suffering Servant prophecies of the eighth century
BC prophet Isaiah. Through Zechariah, God revealed the event would be
associated with profound expressions of repentance and the outpouring of His Divine
Spirit, like a fountain to purify them from sin and uncleanness. Those
predicted events occurred in the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth,
the promised Davidic Messiah, and the coming of the Holy Spirit fifty days after
His Resurrection on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost.
Seeking an intimate relationship with God is the prayer in today's Responsorial Psalm. The psalm, attributed to David, expresses the connection between the psalmist and his God based on trust and love. When he feels separated from God, he longs for restored fellowship and communion with his Lord. He compares the necessity for God in his life with the need all living things have for water to survive, and he recalls the joy of the closeness he felt with God when he worshipped Him in the Jerusalem Temple. It is an intimacy based on a right relationship with the Almighty in which the psalmist feels profound gratitude for the help and protection of his loving God.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul teaches that real intimacy with God does not come from simple obedience to the law of the old Sinai Covenant but only in Christ Jesus in whom we are justified (made right with God) by faith through God's grace rather than by the works of the Law of Moses. As "children of God in Christ Jesus," by faith and submission to Christian baptism, all Christians are Abraham's descendants and heirs of the promise of the world-wide blessing God made to him through the Abrahamic covenant.
The Gospel Reading reminds us of God's promises through His Old Testament prophets like Zechariah that He would send a Redeemer-Messiah from the lineage of the great King David. The Davidic Messiah was promised to gather the "lost sheep" of the house of Israel and save all who repented their sins and returned to a new covenant relationship with the One true God.
Jesus of Nazareth fulfills all the promises of the Old Testament prophets. During His three-year ministry, Jesus slowly revealed His true identity to His disciples and to the crowds of people who came to hear Him preach and see Him offer healing miracles. He set all who believed in Him on the path to eternal salvation by fulfilling the promises of the old Abrahamic and Sinai covenants and establishing a new and everlasting covenant. No longer was obedience to God expressed only in the works of the Law through an outward expressing of ritual piety. Jesus intensified, internalized, and internationalized the old Law into the law of the love of God extended to all members of the human family. Through Jesus Christ, the one sent to "shepherd" the "lost sheep" of God's people, the promise of salvation extended beyond the Jews to the Gentile nations in which He invited all men and women of every race and nationality to become one family in Christ, fulfilling the worldwide blessing promised to Abraham.
Make this Sunday's antiphon your prayer, as we call upon the Divine Shepherd to share His life with us and to bring us to salvation: "God is the strength of his people. In him, we, his chosen, live in safety. Save us, Lord, who share in your life, and give us your blessing; be our shepherd forever."
The First Reading Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1 ~ The Suffering Messiah
10 I will pour out
on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and
petition; and they shall look on him [Me] whom they have thrust through [pierced],
and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall
grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall
be as great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. [...] 13:1 On that day there shall be open to the
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain to purify them
from sin and uncleanness.
[...] = Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English, vol. III, page
2175; #1856 = daqar, "to stab, pierce, strike (thrust) through, wound"
(Strong's Hebrew Lexicon and Dictionary). Many the the oldest Hebrew manuscripts
and the Greek Septuagint translation have "me" instead of "him," which the Church
Fathers believed was a prophetic reference to Jesus Christ.
Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi were the prophets sent to the covenant people after their return from the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century AD. The book of Zechariah divides into two parts: Chapters 1-8 and 9-14. Part two of the book of Zechariah (9:1-14:21) consists of two prophetic oracles called the "Messianic oracles." The first oracle concerns the coming of the promised Messiah descended from the lineage of King David will make a triumphal ride into Jerusalem: Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass (Zec 9:9). The Jewish crowds recognized that the fulfillment of the promise of this oracle on the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass (Palm Sunday) as they hailed Him as the Davidic king and promised Messiah by quoting from this passage (Mt 21:4-5 and Jn 12:15).
Zechariah 12:1 announces this passage as the second prophecy concerning the future of a restored Israel. Referring prophetically to the "Last Days" (the Final Age of humanity), the oracle prophesies that the Messiah will lead the people to conversion and purification (12:9-13:9). This event will be preceded by the people's profound repentance that will bring about the outpouring of God's Spirit. The reason for their grief will be the death of a man who was loved and has been martyred. The mysterious death of the man who they have pierced has a similar effect on the people as the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah concerning the death of the "Servant of the Lord" in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 who ...surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses (Is 53:12b). The description of the death of the man in both prophecies prefigures Jesus Christ who died in sacrifice to atone for the sins of humanity, whose body was pierced by nails in the crucifixion and His dead body pierced by the spear of a Roman soldier (Jn 19:37).
On the Jewish feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus' Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon and indwelled the 120 disciples of Jesus praying in the Upper Room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:13-15). Purified and filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples spilled out into the street, professing Christ as the Redeemer-Messiah in many languages (Acts 2:1-13). At that time, St. Peter announced to the Jews in the crowd that they were witnessing the event of the "Last Days" prophesied by the prophets when God promised to pour out His Spirit upon humanity. Peter announced: It will come to pass in the last days, God says, 'that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh ...' (Acts 2:17a; Peter quoting from Joel 3:1). St. Peter told the Jews: This man delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him. But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death because it was impossible for him to be held by it (Acts 2:23-24).
12:10b and
they shall look on him [Me] whom they have thrust through [pierced], and they
shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over
him as one grieves over a firstborn. 11 On
that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be as great as the mourning of
Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
The reading of "me," 'elay, first-person singular, is
supported in all the major ancient manuscripts of this passage, the Jewish
Massoretic text, and in the Greek Septuagint translation. Most modern
translations do not support this reading because it seems to contradict the
third-person references to the "pirced one" that follow this verse and the
quotes in John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7, where this text is quoted using a
third-person translation. The Church Fathers interpreted the first-person
reading as referring prophetically to God the Son, Jesus Christ, speaking of
Himself.
In Zechariah's prophecy, he says the outpouring of grief for the pierced victim in Jerusalem can be compared to the national mourning of the people when David's descendant, righteous King Josiah (640-609 BC) died on the plains of Megiddo near a site called Hadadrimmon, a shrine to the pagan gods Hadad and Rimmon (2 Chr 35:22-25). King Josiah was much loved because he ruled with ability and piety. He brought about the religious reform of the Kingdom of Judah and the renewal of the covenant, turning the people back to Yahweh (2 Kng 23:1-3). Many the the oldest Hebrew manuscripts and the Greek Septuagint translation have "me" instead of "him," which the Church Fathers believed was a prophetic reference to Jesus Christ.
What Zechariah describes was the same grief experienced by Jesus' faithful disciples and by others who came to understand that Jesus of Nazareth was the Davidic heir and the promised Redeemer-Messiah. On Pentecost Sunday, St. Peter's speech was so forceful in convincing the Jewish crowd that they were responsible for the martyrdom of their promised Messiah that they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do my brothers?" (Acts 2:37). Peter responded: "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). This event fulfilled Zechariah's oracle.
Zechariah's prophecy records that another aspect of this event will be the cleansing of the people: On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain to purify them from sin and uncleanness (Zec 3:1). Under the Law of the Sinai Covenant, purification for being ritually unclean and unfit for worship was accomplished by ritually washing in "luster water," water infused with the ashes of a ritually sacrificed red heifer to restore ritual purity and fitness for worship (Num 19:9-22; 31:23). In the New Covenant in Christ, purification and sanctification come through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the altar of the Cross and the regeneration that came through being washed by water and the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Christian Baptism (CCC 1213-74), another fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy.
Responsorial Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9 ~ Seeking the Lord
The response is: "My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God."
2 O God, you are my
God, for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, like a
land parched, lifeless, and without water.
Response:
3 So I look
to you in the sanctuary to see your power and glory. 4 For your love is better than life; my
lips offer you worship!
Response:
5 I will bless you as
long as I live; I will lift up my hands, calling on your name. 6 My soul shall savor the rich banquet of
praise, with joyous lips my mouth shall honor your!
Response:
8 That you indeed
are my help, and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy. 9 My soul clings fast to you; your right hand
upholds me.
Response:
The introductory superscription attributes this psalm to David when he was in the wilderness of Judah (1 Sam 24). He is specifically noted as the author in the superscriptions of 73 psalms (Ps 3-9; 11-32; 34-41; 51-65; 68-70; 86; 101; 103; 108-110; 122; 124; 131; 133; and 138-145). However, in the New Testament, he is also credited as the author of Psalm 2 (Acts 4:25) and Psalm 95 (Heb 4:7).
The psalm expresses the intimate personal relationship between the psalmist and his God. When he feels separated from God, he longs for restored fellowship and communion with his Lord. He compares his need for God in his life with the need all living things have for water to survive (verse 2). The psalmist recalls the joy of the closeness he felt with God when he worshipped in the Temple (verse 3-6). It is an intimacy based on a right relationship with the Almighty in which the psalmist feels profound gratitude for the help and protection of his loving God (verses 8-9).
The Second Reading Galatians 3:26-29 ~ Being One in
Christ and Children of the Promise
26 For through faith
you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. 28 There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not
male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.
This reading is a continuation of St. Paul's teaching on justification from last week's second reading from Galatians chapter 2. In Galatians 3:23-29, Paul adds to his argument in support of justification by faith and through God's grace rather than by works of the Law of Moses (Gal 2:16-21). "Justification" is the process of a sinner becoming justified or made right with God. As defined by the Council of Trent, justification is the change from the condition in which a person is born as a child in the family of the first Adam into a state of grace and adoption as a child in the family of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior.
As "children of God in Christ Jesus," by virtue of their faith and submission to Christian baptism, the Galatians are all Abraham's descendants and heirs of the promises God made to Abraham through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:1-3; 22:15-18). Those promises were a kingdom, descendants as many as the stars, and a worldwide blessing.
Down through the centuries Mother Church, Jesus' Kingdom of Heaven on earth, has brought forth countless children in every generation from one end of the earth to the other—children who stand as heirs of Christ and as equals before God despite gender or ethnicity. It is Mother Church who guides and protects those who are all one in Christ Jesus. Believers who respond to faith in Christ through the Sacrament of Christian baptism become members of Christ's Mystical Body and intimately united to the life of Jesus. The unity of the Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). God fulfilled the promise He made to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant: the entire world has received a blessing by Abraham's descendant, Jesus of Nazareth, and by the universal Church that Jesus established as His vehicle of salvation for all humanity (Gen 12:3; 22:18; Mt 1:1; Gal 3:29).
The Gospel Reading Luke 9:18-24 ~ Jesus Reveals His True
Identity and Calls His Disciples to Follow Him in Suffering and Resurrection
18 Once when Jesus
was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who
do the crowds say that I am?" 19 They
said in reply, "John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, 'One of the
ancient prophets has arisen.'" 20 Then
he said to them, "but who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "The Messiah
of God." 21 He rebuked them and
directed them not to tell this to anyone. 22
He said, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day
be raised." 23 Then he said to
all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me. 24 For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake will save it."
According to St. Matthew, this event took place in the extreme northern region of the Promised Land at Caesarea Philippi near what is today the Golan Heights (Mt 16:13). In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter's declaration is more precise where he says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). Jesus tells His Apostles that Simon-Peter's profession of faith was divinely revealed to him by God the Father (Mt 16:17). Jesus then blesses Peter and commissions him, reaffirming his title "Rock" (Kepha in Aramaic and Petros in Greek) and making him the "rock" upon which Jesus will found His Kingdom of the Church (Jesus first named Simon "Rock" in their meeting in Jn 1:42). In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus also gives Peter the symbolic "keys" of the Kingdom through which Peter receives authority over the Apostles who are Jesus' other ministers and Jesus' Kingdom of the Church that is the "new Jerusalem" (Mt 16:18-19), recalling the authority of the vicar of the Davidic king. In Isaiah 22:21b-23, God defined the Davidic Vicar's role: he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. I shall place the key of David's palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open. I shall drive him like a nail into a firm place; and he will become a throne of glory for his family.
21 He rebuked
them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.
Jesus instructed His disciples to keep this knowledge to
themselves for the present. He only has a limited amount of time to complete
His mission to call the Jews to repentance and salvation before His rendezvous
with the Cross. The revelation that He claims to be the divine Messiah will be
what will cause the religious authorities to condemn Him to death.
22 He said, "The
Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised."
The "Son of Man" is Jesus' favorite title for Himself. It not
only points to His humanity but to His identity as the divine Messiah in the
Prophet Daniel's vision: I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of
heaven; when he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, he
received dominion, glory, and kingship. Nations and peoples of every language
serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken
away; his kingship shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:13). Jesus quoted from Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13 at His trial before the Sanhedrin (Jewish high court)
saying: "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'" (Mt 26:64). What
He said was understood as claiming to be the "Son of Man" who is the divine
Messiah from Daniel's vision and David's prophecy of the Messiah in Psalms 110:1 (see Jesus' teaching on this passage in Lk 20:41-44). Jesus' statement using
these quotes caused the high priest to condemn Him to death for blasphemy (Mt 26:64-66; Mk 14:62-64; Lk 22:69).
Luke 9:22 is the first prophecy of Jesus' Passion in the Gospel of Luke and a turning point in His preparation for His disciples. From now on, He will teach clearly about what they can expect to prepare them for when He reaches the climax of His ministry. From the beginning of His mission, He fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah: healing the sick, casting out demons, giving hope to the downtrodden and broken-hearted, and raising the dead (Is 25:5-6; 26:14; 35:5). But He was also fulfilling both Zechariah and Isaiah's prophecies of God's Suffering Servant who will die for the sake of His people (see Zech 12:10-11 and Is Chapters 42-53) Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many and win pardon for their offenses (Is 53:12b). Jesus tells them it is His destiny to die, but He also tells them that God will raise Him up from death on the "third day." In the significance of numbers in Scripture, the number three is usually a symbol of something important in God's plan for humanity's salvation (see the document "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture"). Jesus will try to prepare His disciples by prophesizing His Passion three times before their final journey to Jerusalem (Mt 17:21-21, 22-23; 20:17-19; Mk 8:31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34; Lk 9:22-27, 44-45; 18:31-34).
23 Then he
said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
Next, Jesus tells them something incredible when He gives
His disciples three commands:
To deny oneself is hard enough, but the command for each one to "take up his cross daily" must have shocked His disciples. They didn't understand and would not come to comprehend His words until after His glorious Resurrection (Mk 9:32; Lk 18:34). In this teaching on the conditions of discipleship, Jesus uses a cross, the hated symbol of Roman execution for criminals, as an image of submission, obedience, and salvation. Crucifixion was the most excruciating form of capital punishment known in the ancient world, and therefore the Romans only reserved crucifixion for non-Romans (St. Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded while St. Peter was crucified by the Romans). This verse is the first mention of the Roman custom of crucifixion and prefigures Jesus coming sacrifice, something the disciples will remember afterward. He will not tell them He will be crucified until the third prediction of His Passion in Matthew 20:19.
In verses 23-24 Jesus tells His disciples that true discipleship is based on the willingness to daily die to self and to live for Christ: to willingly endure those struggles that are necessary to faithfully and obediently serve Christ and His Kingdom. This kind of obedience means completely identifying with Christ's message even to the point of death. But the paradox of the promise is whoever goes so far as to "lose his life" for the sake of Christ (to suffer martyrdom) will "save his life," meaning that person will live eternally in Jesus' heavenly Kingdom. It is the challenge the Christian faces daily: to die to self in resisting selfish desires in the temptations to sin and to live in righteousness by doing acts of mercy and compassion in imitation of Christ. Jesus didn't promise that the depth of devotion He asks of us would be easy, but He did promise that the rewards for faithful obedience are eternal.
Catechism references (*indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Zechariah 12:10 (CCC 1432*, 2561*);
13:1 (CCC 2561*)
Galatians 3:26-29 (791, 1227, 1243, 1425, 2348)
Luke 9:18-20 (CCC 2600*, 1435); 9:23 (CCC 1435*)
Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013, revised 2019