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From: Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29

Song of exhortation and consolation for the exiles

[5] Take courage, my people,
O memorial of Israel!
[6] It was not for destruction
that you were sold to the nations,
but you were handed over to your enemies
because you angered God.
[7] For you provoked him who made you,
by sacrificing to demons and not to God.
[8] You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up,
and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.

Jerusalem makes lamentation to the cities round about

[9] For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God,
and she said:
“Hearken, you neighbours of Zion,
God has brought great sorrow upon me;
[10]for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters,
which the Everlasting brought upon them.
[11]With joy I nurtured them,
but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow.
[12]Let no one rejoice over me, a widow
and bereaved of many;
I was left desolate because of the sins of my children,
because they turned away from the law of God.

Jerusalem calls on her children to be converted and to have hope

[27]”Take courage, my children, and cry to God,
for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you.
[28]For just as you purposed to go astray from God,
return with tenfold zeal to seek him.
[29]For he who brought these calamities upon you
will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.”

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Commentary:

4:5-5:9. This brings us to the fourth section of the book. Themes of lamentation,
hope, conversion and consolation alternate here. The narrative concerns Jerusa-
lem, who shares her sorrow with her children scattered among the nations, ac-
knowledges her inability to help them, and confesses that her only hope is the
Lord God of Israel. It begins (4:5-8) with words of consolation and encourage-
ment. Then Jerusalem makes a lamentation to the cities of Judah (4:9-16) and
to her own children, exhorting them to conversion (4:17-29). This is followed by
a song of rejoicing (4:30-37) and an optimistic summing up of the whole book
(5:1-9).

4:5-8. The chosen people will be punished for their unfaithfulness, but still there
are grounds for hope: a remnant, a “memorial” (v. 5), will remain loyal and will re-
turn from exile. This goes to show that the punishment meted out by God does
not imply the destruction of the people; it is meant as a corrective, and marks
the start of a new people. The theme of the “remnant of Israel” appears often in
the prophets (cf. Amos 5:15; Mic 4:7; Is 4:2-6; 10:20-21; Jer 3:14; 5:18; Ezek
14:22; etc.) and is a reminder that everything that happens is guided by the
hand of God.

4:9-16. Now it is Jerusalem who speaks. She is depicted as a widow and mother
who sees that her children have been led off into captivity: “Jerusalem is called a
widow because she has been deprived of the divine care that was once given to
her” (Theodoret of Cyprus, Interpretation in Baruch, 4, 12). It is a lament for those
who have gone, leaving her alone — an echo of the poetry of the book of Lamen-
tations.

4:17-29. But the punishment imposed by God will not last forever; there is good
reason to hope, based on the compassion and goodness of the Everlasting One;
he will deliver them (v. 22). The return of the exiles is announced, and the joy of
the holy city — in tones reminiscent of the last part of the book of Isaiah (cf. Is
60:1-4; 63:7-9; 66:10-11) and some of Jeremiah’s oracles (cf. Jer 30:18-22). The
passage is both a song of consolation and an exhortation to turn to the Lord.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 10:17-24

The Seventy Return From Their Mission

[17] The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject
to us in Your name!” [18] And He (Jesus) said to them, “I saw Satan fall like light-
ning from Heaven. [19] Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents
and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.
[20] Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but
rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.”

Jesus Gives Thanks

[21] In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank Thee, Fa-
ther, Lord of Heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise
and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was Thy
gracious will. [22] All things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one
knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son
and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

[23] Then turning to the disciples He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which
see what you see! [24] For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see
what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

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Commentary:

20. Our Lord corrects His disciples, making them see that the right reason for
rejoicing lies in hope of reaching Heaven, not in the power to do miracles which
He gave them for their mission. As He said on another occasion, “On that day
many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast
our demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then
will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers’” (Mat-
thew 7:22-23). In other words, in the eyes of God doing His holy will at all times
is more important than working miracles.

21. This passage of the Gospel is usually called our Lord’s “hymn of joy” and is
also found in St. Matthew (11:25-27). It is one of those moments when Jesus re-
joices to see humble people understanding and accepting the word of God.

Our Lord also reveals one of the effects of humility—spiritual childhood. For ex-
ample, in another passage He says: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and be-
come like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
But spiritual childhood does not involve weakness, softness or ignorance: “I have
often meditated on this life of spiritual childhood, which is not incompatible with
fortitude, because it demands a strong will, proven maturity, an open and firm
character [...]. To become children we must renounce our pride and self-suffi-
ciency, recognizing that we can do nothing by ourselves. We must realize that
we need grace, and the help of God our Father to find our way and keep it. To
be little, you have to abandon yourself as children do, believe as children, beg
as children beg” [St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 10 and 143).

22. “This statement is a wonderful help to our faith,” St. Ambrose comments,
“because when you read ‘all’ you realize that Christ is all-powerful, that He is not
inferior to the Father, or less perfect than He; when you read ‘have been delivered
to me’, you confess that Christ is the Son, to whom everything belongs by right
of being one in substance [with the Father] and not by grace of gift” (”Expositio
Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.”).

Here we see Christ as almighty Lord and God, consubstantial with the Father,
and the only one capable of revealing who the Father is. At the same time, we
can recognize the divine nature of Jesus only if the Father gives us the grace of
faith—as He did to St. Peter (cf. Matthew 16:17).

23-24. Obviously, seeing Jesus with one’s own eyes was a wonderful thing for
people who believed in him. However, our Lord will say to Thomas, “Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). St. Peter, for his part,
tells us: “Without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not see Him
you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome
of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.