From: Ezekiel 17:22-24
The allegory come true (continued)
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Commentary:
17:22-24. Chapters 15-17 contain a number of allegories. The special feature of
the cedar tree allegory describing the eventual restoration is the way it puts the
stress on God’s action by explicitly repeating the first person singular: “I myself”,
“I the Lord will bring low”, “I the Lord have spoken”. Some commentators think
that these verses might have been inserted in the text later, but the style and
content of the oracle are perfectly in line with Ezekiel’s thinking.
“In the shade of its branches birds of every sort will rest” (v. 23): the same words
are used in the account of the flood about all sorts of birds entering Noah’s ark.
It points therefore to the eschatological nature of the oracle: after the exile, just
as after the flood, everything will be completely new, although it will derive from
something that already existed. Also, the reference to “birds of every sort” points
to the catholic nature of the new Israel. It is no surprise therefore that our Lord
should use similar imagery to describe the Kingdom of God: it is like a grain of
mustard seed that grows and “becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come
and make nests in its branches” (Mt 13:32).
“I the Lord bring low the high tree” (v. 24): here again we see the Lord as the pro-
tagonist in the history of the chosen people. He is the author of life, which makes
what is dry flourish, and of death, which withers the green tree. He has set his
might against those who, in their arrogance, do not accept him (cf. 31:10-14).
The New Testament will have much to say about the value of humility; for exam-
ple: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will
be exalted” (Mt 23:12).
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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: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
He is sustained by hope of heaven
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Commentary:
6. St Alphonsus says apropos of this verse: “This is not our fatherland; we are
here, as it were, passing through, like pilgrims [. . .]. Our fatherland is heaven,
which we have to merit by God’s grace and our own good actions. Our home is
not the one we live in at present, which serves only as a temporary dwelling; our
home is eternity” (Shorter Sermons, XVI).
However, as St Paul himself shows elsewhere (cf. Acts 16:16-40; 22:22-29; Rom
13:1-7; 2 Thess 3:6:13), this “being away” from the Lord does not mean that a
Christian should not concern himself with the building up of the earthly city. On
the contrary, he should do everything he can to build a world which is more and
more like what God wants it to be. Vatican II, for example, exhorts “Christians,
as citizens of both cities, to perform their duties faithfully in the spirit of the Gos-
pel. It is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek
the city which is to come (cf. Heb 13:14), we are entitled to shirk our responsibi-
lities; this is to forget that, by our faith, we are bound all the more to fulfil these
responsibilities according to the vocation of each one (cf. 2 Thess 3:6-13; Eph 4:
28) [.. .]. The Christian who shirks his temporal duties shirks his duties towards
his neighbour, neglects God himself and endangers his eternal salvation. Let
Christians follow the example of Christ who worked as a craftsman; let them be
proud of the opportunity to carry out their earthly activity in such a way as to inte-
grate human, domestic, professional, scientific and technical enterprises with reli-
gious values, under whose supreme direction all things are ordered to the glory
of God” (Gaudium et spes, 43).
7. St Paul here speaks of faith as light which shows us the way as we progress
towards eternal life. However, when we reach our home in heaven we will no long-
er need the light of faith, because God himself and Christ will be our light (cf. Rev
21:23).
8-10. Here we can see the Apostle’s firm conviction that he will meet the Lord the
moment he dies. In other passages of Sacred Scripture the same truth is stated
(cf. Lk 16:22-23; 23:43), and the Magisterium of the Church has defined that souls
will receive their eternal reward or punishment immediately after death — or after
they pass through purgatory, if they have to do so (cf. Benedict XII, “Benedictus
Deus, Dz-Sch”, 1000).
This sentence of reward or punishment — given at the particular judgment and ra-
tified at the general judgment at the end of time — is based on the person’s merits
gained during his life on earth, for once he has died he can no longer merit. In
view of this judgment St Paul exhorts us to do everything we can in this life to
please the Lord. “Does your soul not burn with the desire to make your Father-
God happy when he has to judge you?” (St J. Escrivá, “The Way”, 746).
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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.