Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Catechism Links[1] 

CCC 772-773, 796: the Church, the mystery of union with God

CCC 796: the Church as the Bride of Christ

 

“Christ, the Bridegroom”
artist and date are unknown.

Readings for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time [2]* 

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [3]* 

Readings and Commentary: [4]

*Because this Sunday celebration has been superseded by the Easter Season for over 16 years, no reading links are available from either USCCB or Universalis. 

Reading 1: Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22 

Thus says the LORD:

I will lead her into the desert

and speak to her heart.

She shall respond there as in the days of her youth,

when she came up from the land of Egypt.

I will espouse you to me forever:

I will espouse you in right and in justice,

in love and in mercy;

I will espouse you in fidelity,

and you shall know the Lord.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Hos 2:16bc, 17cd, 21-22

The Prophet Hosea, voicing God’s hope for the people of Israel, speaks as a husband might address a wife. (In later parts of the book Israel is like the wife who was unfaithful.) In this selection, speaking with the voice of God to the Hebrew people, he sounds as if he is wooing his future bride.  He tells them that if they will be faithful, God is always faithful, because God’s love and mercy are eternal. In Hebrew tradition this courtship would include the gifts for the bride (cf. Genesis 24:53).

CCC: Hos 2 218; Hos 2:21-22 2787
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13 

R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.

 

Bless the LORD, O my soul;

and all my being, bless his holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits.

R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

He pardons all your iniquities,

heals all your ills.

He redeems your life from destruction,

crowns you with kindness and compassion.

R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger and abounding in kindness.

Not according to our sins does he deal with us,

nor does he requite us according to our crimes.

R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he put our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary on Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

Psalm 103 is a hymn of praise (and thanksgiving). It is a simple and beautiful reaction to God’s goodness. Remembering God’s promise of mercy for the innocent, these strophes praise God for his compassion and give thanks for his salvation.

CCC: Ps 103 304
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reading 2:  2 Corinthians 3:1b-6 

Brothers and sisters:

Do we need, as some do,

letters of recommendation to you or from you?

You are our letter, written on our hearts,

known and read by all,

shown to be a letter of Christ ministered by us,

written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God,

not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

Not that of ourselves we are qualified

to take credit for anything as coming from us;

rather, our qualification comes from God,

who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,

not of letter but of spirit;

for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary on 2 Cor 3:1-6a

The apostle is defending the Christian “Way” against Jewish factions that are clearly either attaching or claiming superiority over the faithful. The Apostle first establishes that proof of their identity is in their outward witness of Christ. They do not need to claim the Hebrew heritage (“You are our letter, written on our hearts… not on tablets of stone”) –tablets of stone referring to the delivery of the Decalogue. They are the living sign. In this part of his apologetic, he first compares the Covenant of Moses (which ends in death) with the New Covenant (which ends in eternal life).

Paul is drawing from two prophecies about the messianic age. Writing on the heart evokes Jeremiah’s promise that God will ratify a new covenant and inscribe his law on the hearts of his people (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The contrast between stone and human hearts evokes Ezekiel’s promise that God will replace the stony hearts of his people with fleshly hearts that are ready to obey him through the Spirit (Ezekiel 11: 19; 36:26-27). [5]

CCC: 2 Cor 3:3 700; 2 Cor 3:6 859
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gospel: Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.

People came to him and objected,

"Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,

but your disciples do not fast?"

Jesus answered them,

"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,

and then they will fast on that day.

No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.

If he does, its fullness pulls away,

the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,

and both the wine and the skins are ruined.

Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary on Mk 2:18-22

Jesus is confronted by “some of the people” about why his disciples do not fast as the disciples of St. John and the Pharisees do.  Ritual fasting is done as a sign of mourning or repentance, which is why Jesus makes the remarks he does; the time for mourning had not yet come.

In response to the question by the Pharisees, Jesus uses an Old Testament metaphor in which God’s relation to his covenant people is a marriage (see Hosea 2:16-20, Isaiah 54:5-6, Jeremiah 2:2, Ezekiel 16:32 ff) “Can the wedding guests fast? The bridal metaphor expresses a new relationship of love between God and his people in the person and mission of Jesus to his disciples. It is the inauguration of the new and joyful messianic time of fulfillment and the passing of the old. Any attempt at assimilating the Pharisaic practice of fasting, or of extending the preparatory discipline of John's disciples beyond the arrival of the bridegroom, would be as futile as sewing a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak or pouring new wine into old wineskins with the resulting destruction of both cloth and wine (Mark 2:21-22). Fasting is rendered superfluous during the earthly ministry of Jesus; cf. Mark 2:20.” [6]

CCC: Mk 2:19 796
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reflection: 

We sometimes wonder how much of what they prophesied would come to pass as they envisioned.  The Prophet Hosea, according to scripture scholars, was anguished because he had been jilted by his wife.  As a consequence, when he wrote his love letter go God, he often saw the Hebrew people as the bride of God and his prophecy used that analog throughout his writings.  Could he see a time when God would become incarnate?  Could he possibly have guessed that the love story between God and his often fickle and faithless people would come to pass in the reality of Jesus Christ? 

We see the beautiful images of love as he speaks of the Lord becoming the bridegroom to his people: ”I will espouse you to me forever.” In other translations the word used is betrothed, promised in marriage.  It is this relationship of intense love that is incarnate with the birth of Jesus.  It is more clearly pronounced in another Gospel passage: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16 

We see the intensity of this love in our Lord’s passion.  Evan as his life on earth was ended by his “faithless bride,” he called to his Father that they might be forgiven. 

So is it any wonder that in our Gospel story, when the Lord is challenged by people who are more focused on ritual and the letter of the law than on the spirit of the law given to Moses, that he would remind them that fasting was an act of sorrow and atonement.  How could they be sorrowful when the source of their love and joy was still with them?  The hope of the world walked among them and could do else by rejoice in his presence? 

To use an analogy (which of course always breaks down at some point), it would be like who had been born on November 11^th why they celebrated their birthday.  The love of God triumphs over death and sin.  His only Son walked the earth so our hope and future joy could be complete. 

We pray today that the bridegroom will find us ready and waiting when he comes, and that we shall go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom. 

Pax 

---

[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.

[2] The picture is “Christ, the Bridegroom” artist and date are unknown.

[3] S.S. Commemoratio

[4] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.

[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. p.316.

[6] NAB footnote for Mark 2:18-22