The readings for this Sunday’s Masses are truly “scandalous” in more ways than one. Our English word “scandal” comes ultimately from the Greek skandalon, “a stumbling block.” A “scandal” is something that causes people to “stumble,” i.e. that offends or injures them in some way. As we will see, the exclusive claims made for and by Jesus in the readings for this Sunday are scandalous to the “inclusive” and “diverse” culture we live in today, which does not recognize the possibility of a religious truth binding on all humanity.
1. The first reading is Acts 4:8-12:
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
“Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
Peter and John
have been taken before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish combination Congress and Supreme
Court) and are actually being tried for healing a man in the name of Jesus.
Peter says its is
“by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” that the crippled man was
healed. The “Name” motif runs strongly
through this reading. The concept and
reality of the “Name” of God is very rich in the Old Testament. God’s “Name” has virtually the same
attributes of God himself. The
revelation of God’s “Name” to Moses is essentially the revelation of God’s own
self to Moses (Exodus 3). Later in Israel’s
history, God will make his “Name” dwell in the Temple (Deut 12:11 et passim), which is virtually the same
as saying God’s own presence will
inhabit the Temple. The “Name” of God
continues to be important in the New Testament as well (see John 17). In this passage from Acts we are seeing that
Jesus Christ of Nazareth has become God’s “Name,” i.e. the expression of his
power and presence. We can almost say
that the “Name” of God in the Old Testament is all but the same as his “Word,”
and that both “Name” and “Word” are ultimately the Second Person of the
Trinity.
So, the fact that
this man is healed “in the Name of Jesus” implies that “Jesus” is “the Name of
the LORD” (cf. Pss 116:4,13,17; 118:10-12,26) and therefore Jesus is divine: a
scandal for St. Peter’s hearers. He knows that most of them will not accept
this message, so he continues with a quote from Psalm 118: “The stone the
builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (v. 22). In other words: “Jesus, the rock that you
consider a ‘skandalon,’—an offense, an inconvenient cause of stumbling—has in
fact become the foundation stone of the Temple of God.” The whole building
metaphor, after all, has the Temple specifically in view. The building of which Jesus is the “head of
the corner”—that is, the first stone laid, crucial for the stability of the
whole structure—is the Temple of God, built not of stones but of persons (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:5).
St. Peter
concludes his message with this line: “And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved.”
This is the line
that offends our modern pluralism. Isn’t
arrogant for Peter to claim that Jesus is the sole way to “salvation”?
I don’t think it
is, once we understand what “salvation” is.
“Salvation” as
defined by Jesus and the Church is not an eternity in a garden of sensual
delights. Rather, “salvation” is to
share the very life of God. It is to
participate in the divine nature, to become a “child” or “son” of God, and
enjoy him forever.
The founders of
other major world religions do not even claim
to offer a way to this “salvation.”
The Buddha taught
that the problem of human existence was the illusion of our self-hood, and he
offered a way by which we could lose this illusion and thus essentially cease
to exist as personal beings.
This is not what
Christians mean by “salvation.”
Joseph Smith taught that each of us could become a deity ourselves, complete with our own planet/solar system to govern and populate. Each of us becomes a "god" with a small G.
This is not what Christians mean by salvation.
Mohammed taught a
way of obedience to a monopersonal god, “Allah,” who would reward those who
were his obedient servants in this life by granting them an afterlife of
sensual pleasure and comfort. He did not offer divine sonship, nor a
participation in the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4).
This, too, is not
what Christians mean by “salvation.”
We could continue
this analysis, mutatis mutandis, with
the other founders of world religions and philosophical systems. They do not claim to offer what Jesus Christ
claims to offer: divine sonship (childhood), which is a participation in the
life of God himself, forever.
If there are
three vendors on a street in a marketplace, one selling bananas, one selling
oranges, and one selling apples, it is not arrogant for the banana merchant to
proclaim, “ I am the only way to bananas!”
Apologies for the
humble analogy, but likewise it is not arrogant for St. Peter to proclaim on
behalf of Christ, “There is no other name by which we must be saved!”—provided we understand what it
is to be “saved” according to Jesus and the Apostles.
2. The responsorial psalm is Psalm 118:
R. (22) The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
we bless you from the house of the LORD.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his kindness endures forever.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
We have discussed this Psalm in previous
posts: its significance as a todah
psalm, its use in the Passover liturgy, its frequency in the Lectionary during
this time of the Church year. In today’s
mass, the Psalm complements the first reading, in which Peter quotes it
concerning the “rejected stone”:
Let's keep in mind that Psalm 118 was essentially the last thing Our Lord uttered at the Last Supper, since the "hymn" sung by Jesus and the Apostles (Mark 14:26) before leaving for the Mount of Olives would have been the Passover Hallel consisting of Psalms 113-118. Now, weeks after Easter, Peter is proclaiming that the prophetic words of the Hallel have found a fulfillment in Christ!He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
3. The second reading is taken from the First
Epistle of John 3:1-2:
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are!
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
While at first it
appears that this reading does not share themes with the others, in fact it
does, in a profound way: the Apostle John emphasizes the element of Jesus’
Gospel that the world finds so scandalous: the offer of divine sonship. This is what
the Buddha would have considered silly and Mohammed blasphemous:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God!
Our eternal
destiny is mysterious, something beyond what can be fully comprehended in this
life: “it does not yet appear what we shall be.” It is not an eternal Disneyland or garden of
sensual delights. It will be, however,
eternal communion with God: “we shall
see him as he is.” Gazing (looking intently upon someone) is a
profound form of communion in the Scriptures, as can be seen in the Song of
Songs, a book which deeply influenced the Apostle John and echoes of which can
be found in strategic places in his Gospel. The idea of "seeing" God is very important in strategic places in the Gospel of John: just look at John 1 "No one has ever seen God, but God the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known," or John 14:9: "He who has seen me has seen the Father."
This Second Reading just re-emphasizes that the whole point of our Christian faith is something different than the other world religions and philosophies are trying to attain. Do you want to become a child of the only creator God who truly exists? Do you want to enter into communion with him and share his nature for ever? Then check out the Catholic Church.
4. The Gospel
reading, however, does not show the influence of the Song of Songs, but of two
other key OT texts: Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34.
We are speaking of the famous “Good Shepherd Discourse” (John 10:11-18):
Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
In Psalm 23,
David proclaimed: “The LORD (YHWH) is my Shepherd!” So in claiming to be the “Good Shepherd,”
Jesus is implicitly claiming to be the LORD.
Other passages
come into play here, as well. In Ezekiel
34 the LORD promises that in the latter days, “I myself will be the shepherd of
my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back
the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak,
and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice” (vv.
15-16). Jesus is clearly developing this
passage and its larger context, and applying it to himself.
But Ezekiel 34
also promises that in the latter days, “I will set up over them one shepherd,
my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their
shepherd” (v. 23). Hmmm, that’s
curious. Lord, I thought you just said
that you yourself would be the shepherd of your sheep (Ezek 34:15)? How is David going to fit into this
picture? Will there be two shepherds, the LORD and David? But that can’t be, because “I will set up
over them one shepherd …” (Ezek
34:23).
In claiming to be
the Good Shepherd, Jesus is assuming the mantle of both the LORD and David,
the two of whom, Ezekiel prophesied, would constitute the one shepherd of Israel in the latter days.
But here is an
element of Jesus’ teaching that is not clearly foreseen in Psalm 23 or Ezek 34:
namely, that the LORD-Shepherd would submit to death: “I lay down my life, that
I may take it again. No one takes it
from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (vv. 17-18). This is a final “scandalous” element of Jesus
Gospel: a savior-God who loves us to the point of death. This, too, is something not found in Buddha,
Mohammed, and the other great religions and philosophies. It’s scandalous, too, because if our
Shepherd, Lord, and God laid down his life in love, that sets an example for
us: an example we often balk at following. Let's remember that Jesus taught us: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). The path of salvation is the path of the cross—a life of self-denial even to the point of death. Understandably, this message has never been super popular. Even in historical periods where the institutional Church has enjoyed popular support, the numbers of people who truly internalized this Gospel message and lived it out have been relatively small.
May the grace that we receive from communing with Christ in this
Eucharist empower us to lay down our lives in love this coming week, take up our cross, and follow Jesus—whatever that may mean in our different life circumstances.
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