Replies

From: 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17

The Census

[2] So the king (David) said to Joab and the commanders of the army, who were
with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and num-
ber the people, that I may know the number of the people.” [9] And Joab gave the
sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred
thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hun-
dred thousand.

[10] But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David
said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD,
I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

Pestilence. God’s Forgiveness

[11] And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the pro-
phet Gad, David’s seer, saying, [12] “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD,
Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you. [13] So Gad
came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come
to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pur-
sue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider,
and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” [14] Then David said
to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mer-
cy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

[15] So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appoin-
ted time; and there died of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand
men. [16] And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to de-
stroy it, the LORD repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working
destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel
of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. [17] Then David
spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was smiting the people, and said,
“Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they
done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.”

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

24:1-25. The account of the census contains some elements similar to those
in the account of the deaths of the house of Saul (cf. 21:1-14): there were three
years of famine; the earlier tragedy was caused by a sin of Saul, and we have a
sin of David; previously the Lord was appeased once David piously buried Saul
and his family, that is, when a page in the history of Israel was closed (cf. 21:
14); now a similar effect is attributed to the sacrifices offered by David on the
new altar of Jerusalem, that is, when a new and promising stage begins for the
chosen people (v. 25).

The account starts in a surprising way because it anticipates the outcome, that
is, divine anger and punishment, and it also gives the circumstances of the trans-
gression, by pointing out that it was the Lord who incited David to commit it (v.1).
In the mentality of that time all human events were attributed to God, even natu-
ral disasters, and temptation to sin; such anthropomorphisms serve to show the
gravity of the transgression. The census was so enormous a sin that the idea be-
hind it is imputed to a supernatural being (1 Chronicles 21:1 calls him “Satan”)
and its consequences are such that only God can prevent or alleviate them.

To know the number of members that make up the people (v. 2) was equivalent
to lording it over them and taking advantage of them, sometimes by way of taxes,
sometimes by conscripting them into the army or making them slaves to do hard
labor for the king. The people of Israel belong only to the Lord, and are subject on-
ly to him. When the Law permitted a census, each of those counted had to pay a
ransom similar to what was paid when a first-born was redeemed (cf. the note on
Ex 30:11-16), indicating that in some way they were passing from the Lord’s do-
main into that of the king.

*********************************************************************************************
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: Mark 6:1-6

No Prophet Is Honored In His Own Country

[1] He (Jesus) went away from there and came to His own country; and His dis-
ciples followed Him. [2] And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue;
and many who heard Him were astonished saying, “Where did this man get all
this? What is the wisdom given to Him? What mighty works are wrought by His
hands! [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and
Joses and Judah and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us?” And they
took offense at Him. [4] And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without ho-
nor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
[5] And He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands upon
a few sick people and healed them. [6] And He marvelled because of their un-
belief.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

1-3. Jesus is here described by His occupation and by the fact that He is the
son of Mary. Does this indicate that St. Joseph is dead already? We do not
know, but it is likely. In any event, the description is worth underlining: in the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke we are told of the virginal conception of
Jesus. St. Mark’s Gospel does not deal with our Lord’s infancy, but there may
be an allusion here to His virginal conception and birth, in His being described
as “the son of Mary.”

“Joseph, caring for the Child as he had been commanded, made Jesus a crafts-
man, transmitting his own professional skill to him. So the neighbors of Naza-
reth will call Jesus both “faber” and “fabri filius”: the craftsman and the son of
the craftsman” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 55). This message of
the Gospel reminds us that our vocation to work is not marginal to God’s plans.

“The truth that by means of work man participates in the activity of God Himself,
his Creator, was ‘given particular prominence by Jesus Christ’ — the Jesus at
whom many of His first listeners in Nazareth ‘were astonished, saying, “Where
did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to Him?... Is not this the car-
penter?’” (Mark 6:23). For Jesus not only proclaimed but first and foremost ful-
filled by His deeds the ‘Gospel’, the word of eternal Wisdom, that had been en-
trusted to Him. Therefore this was also ‘the gospel of work’, because ‘He who pro-
claimed it was Himself a man of work’, a craftsman like Joseph of Nazareth (cf.
Matthew 13:55). And if we do not find in His words a special command to work —
but rather on one occasion a prohibition against too much anxiety about work
and life—(Matthew 6:25-34)—at the same time the eloquence of the life of Christ
is unequivocal: He belongs to the ‘working world’, He has appreciation and res-
pect for human work. It can indeed be said the ‘He looks with love upon human
work’ and the different forms that it takes, seeing in each one of these forms a
particular facet of man’s likeness with God, the Creator and Father” (Bl. John
Paul II, “Laborem Exercens”, 26).

St. Mark mentions by name a number of brothers of Jesus, and refers in general
to His sisters. But the word “brother” does not necessarily mean son of the same
parents. It can also indicate other degrees of relationship—cousins, nephews, etc.
Thus in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14 and 16 Lot is called the brother of Abraham (tran-
slated as “kinsman” in RSV), whereas we know that he was Abraham’s nephew,
the son of Abraham’s brother Haran. The same is true of Laban, who is called the
brother of Jacob (Genesis 29:15) although he was his mother’s brother (Genesis
29:15); there are other instances: cf. 1 Chronicles 23:21-22, etc. This confusion
is due to the poverty of Hebrew and Aramaic language: in the absence of distinct
terms, the same word, brother, is used to designate different degrees of relation-
ship.

From other Gospel passages we know that James and Joses, who are mentioned
here, were sons of Mary of Clophas (John 19:25). We know less about Judas and
Simon: it seems that they are the Apostles Simon the Cananaean (Matthew 10:4)
and Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16), the author of the Catholic Epistle, in
which he describes himself as “brother” of James. In any event, although James,
Simon and Judas are referred to as brothers of Jesus, it is nowhere said they
were “sons of Mary” — which would have been the natural thing if they had been
our Lord’s brothers in the strict sense. Jesus always appears as an only son: to
the people of Nazareth, He is “the son of Mary” (Matthew 13:55). When He was
dying Jesus entrusted His mother to St. John (cf. John 19:26-27), which shows
that Mary had no other children. To this is added the constant belief of the Church,
which regards Mary as the ever-virgin: “a perfect virgin before, while, and forever
after she gave birth” (Paul IV, “Cum Quorumdam”).

5-6. Jesus worked no miracles here: not because He was unable to do so, but as
punishment for the unbelief of the townspeople. God wants man to use the grace
offered him, so that, by cooperating with grace, he become disposed to receive
further graces. As St. Augustine neatly puts it, “He who made you without your
own self, will not justify you without yourself” (”Sermon” 169).

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