We have celebrated the glorious feast of Pentecost when the disciples received the Spirit of Jesus, and so were filled with courage and zeal to spread the Gospel.  Perhaps the earliest expression of the Holy Spirit as a distinct person consubstantial with the Father and the Son is by St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred sometime between 98-117 CE.  In his Letter to the Magnesians, St. Ignatius exhorts them: “Be subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.” 

Although the earlier scriptural tradition does not include a Trinitarian doctrine, there are many references to the Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps the best known reference is found right at the very beginning.  We read in Gen. 1:3: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters.” Here other translations render the phrase “mighty wind” as “the spirit of God.”  The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi (1040-1104) comments on this verse: “The Throne of Glory was suspended in the air and hovered over the face of the water with the breath of the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He and with His word, like a dove, which hovers over the nest.”

The spirit of God is the source of prophetic inspiration.  It is said to have endowed Joseph (Gen. 41:38), Azariah son of Oded (2 Chr. 15:1), Zechariah (2 Chr. 24:20), and Ezekiel (Ez. 11:24).  It came upon King Saul, enabling him to prophesy (1 Sam. 10:10, 11:6).  It even came upon the pagan prophet Balaam (Num. 24:2) so that he was forced to bless rather than curse Israel.

The spirit of God could be passed on from one charismatic leader to another. Moses passed on the spirit of God to his successor, Joshua: “Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him; and so the Israelites gave him their obedience, just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (Dt. 34:9).  Elisha received from Elijah a double portion of his spirit (2 Kings 2:9-14).  

Artists and craftsmen are also endowed with the spirit of God.  Thus we read of Bezalel, who was responsible for the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Covenant and its cover, and all the furnishings and utensils of the Tent: “The Lord said to Moses: See, I have singled out Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with a divine spirit of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft” (Ex. 31:1-3). The same Hebrew phrase, “the spirit of God,” is used in this text.

Perhaps most important, in the Hebrew Scriptures, the spirit of God is synonymous with God and God’s presence.  The psalmist prays in Ps. 51:13: “Do not drive me from before your face, / nor take from me your holy spirit.”  The Lord reminds us in Hag. 2:5: “This is the commitment I made to you / when you came out of Egypt. / My spirit remains in your midst; / do not fear!”

Let us then open our hearts and minds to receive the Holy Spirit.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

It was hard for Moses to persuade the Israelites to leave Egypt.  They were very much afraid on Pharaoh and his chariots.   In Ex. 14:11-12, they said Moses: “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Fleeing poverty and slavery in Egypt, a “mixed multitude” joined the Israelite tribes: “A crowd of mixed ancestry also went up with them, with livestock in great abundance, both flocks and herds.” (Ex. 12:38).  It was this group that first complained to the Lord, but complaining is contagious and spreads.  The Israelites also began to grumble: “If only we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we have nothing to look forward to but this manna” (Num. 11:5).  They were not satisfied with the manna that the Lord had provided.

In some ways, it is easier to be a slave than to be free.  There is, at least, some minimal assurance of food and shelter.  The Israelites faced the harsh conditions of the desert.  To enter the Promised Land, they would have to fight hostile tribes.  Weak in faith, they remembered with longing the food of the fertile Nile delta.

The Bible prohibited the Israelites from returning to Egypt.  Among the laws of the Kings (Dt. 17:14-20) we find: “But he shall not have a great number of horses; nor shall he make his people go back again to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord said to you, Do not go back that way again” (Dt. 17:16).  If the people fail to keep the covenant, the people will be dreadfully cursed by being forcibly sent back to Egypt, where they will try to sell themselves as slaves but will starve instead: “The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt, by a route which I told you that you would never see again; and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer” (Dt. 28:68).

The prophets repeat this message.  Isaiah warns the people not to rely on Egypt for help.  He proclaims: “Ah! Those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses; / Who put their trust in chariots because of their number, / and in horsemen because of their combined power, / But look not to the Holy One of Israel/ nor seek the Lord!” (Is. 31:1).  Jeremiah, too, says: “The Lord has spoken to you, remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt! Mark well that I am warning you this day” (Jer. 42:19).

In later literature, Egypt becomes a symbol of idolatry and depravity.  We, who have been freed from the power of sin by the blood of Christ, should not return to the banks of the Nile: “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom. 6:6-8).  

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Some Old Testament laws seem to make no sense.  This has not prevented commentators, both Jewish or Christian, from giving reasons for them.  Thus the various laws are said to have been made for purposes of health or hygiene.  Some Christian thinkers like to discover some deeper theological meaning explaining how the laws prefigure Christ or how they prepare the way for his coming.

One such law is the prohibition against wearing fabric woven of wool and linen.  We find this law juxtaposed with the prohibitions against interbreeding domestic animals and against sowing two different kinds of seed in the same field in Lev. 19:9: “Keep my statutes: do not breed any of your domestic animals with others of a different species; do not sow a field of yours with two different kinds of seed; and do not put on a garment woven with two different kinds of thread.”  We find in Deut. 22:9–11: “You shall not sow your vineyard with two different kinds of seed, or else its produce shall become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. You shall not wear cloth made from wool and linen woven together.”

The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi (1040-1104) classified this law as among those for which there is no reason.  Rashi comments on Gen. 26:5: “Because Abraham hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My instructions.”  On this verse Rashi says: “My statutes: This refers to things that the evil inclination and the nations of the world argue against, such as the prohibitions against eating pork and wearing garments of wool and linen for which no reason is given, but are the decree of the King and His statutes over His subjects.”  In other words, this prohibitions is a law simply because God said so.

Nevertheless, from early on efforts were made to explain this law.  The midrash explains that Cain brought flax seeds as his sacrifice, while Abel brought wooly sheep.  After Cain killed Abel, “the offering of the sinner should not be mixed with the offering of the innocent” (Tanhuma Bereishit 9:9).

Maimonides (1135-1204) explained in his Guide for the Perplexed (3:37): “The wearing of garments made of linen and wool is prohibited: the heathen priests adorned themselves with garments containing vegetable and animal material, whilst they held in their hand a seal made of a mineral.”  In his view, the prohibition was meant to separate Jews from pagan practices.  The difficulty with this view is that the ritual fringes worn by Jewish men are made of mingled wool and linen (B. Talmud Menahot 43b), as was the girdle worn by the high priest (B. Talmud Yoma 12b).  Considering these exemptions, some explained that the prohibition was designed to distinguish between the sacred and the profane.

The thirteenth century Sefer haHinnuch (The Book of Education), ascribed to Rabbi Aaron haLevi of Barcelona, explains that each of God’s creations has its own proper function to perform according to its species, “after its kind” (Gen. 1:12).  The author cites a midrash, “Over each and every one He set a ruling force above, to impel it to its task: as the Sages of blessed memory said, “you will find not a blade of grass below which does not have a celestial being above that bids it, Grow!”  Thus it is not up to human beings to interfere with God’s perfect design by mingling together two species.

Let us not then put forward facile reasons for obscure laws.  As Isaiah says, “Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did he consult to gain knowledge? Who taught him the path of judgment, or showed him the way of understanding?” (Is. 40:13).

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

We begin Palm Sunday on a note of joy that echoes the song of the angels at our Lord’s nativity: But we quickly we enter into the solemn mood of Holy Week, with the reading of the Passion.  The context of the paschal mystery is the Jewish feast of Passover, evident in the narrative that we have this year from Luke but perhaps clearer in Matthew’s version: “On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples’” (Mt. 26:17-19). The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover.”  This year Passover begins at sunset on Monday, March 25.

One portion of the Passover Haggadah, the text that contains the story of the Exodus and that sets forth the order of the Seder, the Passover meal, tells us about four sons:

The Torah speaks of four children: One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple and one does not know how to ask. The wise one, what does he say? “What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the Lord, our God, has commanded you?” You, in turn, shall instruct him in the laws of Passover.” The wicked one, what does he say? “What is this service to you?!” He says “to you,” but not to him! By thus excluding himself from the community he has denied that which is fundamental. You, therefore, say to him: “It is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.” “For me” – but not for him! If he had been there, he would not have been redeemed!” The simple son, what does he say? “What is this?” Thus you shall say to him: “With a strong hand the Lord took us out of Egypt, from the house of slaves.” As for the one who does not know how to ask, you must initiate him, as it is said: “You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.’”

The text teaches the importance of passing on faith on to our children. Parents must adapt their teaching of the laws and traditions to each child, according to their age, maturity, intelligence, and character.  The wise child is taught all of the laws relating to Passover; the simple son is given a briefer and easier lesson.  Parents must take the initiative with the child who does not know how to ask, who may be the youngest.  He or she is given a simple explanation of the feast even before he or she is able to ask any questions about it.  But notice the wicked child.  This child asks, “What does this mean to you?”  He does not consider himself a part of the ritual and so would not have experienced the redemption from Egypt. 

So also must we be part of and take part in the community of Christ.  St. Paul connects the Exodus from Egypt with the Eucharist.  He writes in 1 Cor. 10:1-4: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ.”  A few verses later he writes: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16-17).

This Holy Week may we be mindful of all our brothers and sisters, especially of the poor and those in need.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.  We have no way of knowing what or why Jesus wrote on the ground while the Pharisees asked him what they should do.  But I believe that drawing or writing on the ground is a new act of creation: 

We read in Gen. 2:7: “The Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  The Hebrew word translated as “formed” has the same root as the word “potter” in Jer. 18:1-6:

This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Arise and go down to the potter’s house; there you will hear my word. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the vessel of clay he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making another vessel of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?—oracle of the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

The same word is found in Is. 64:7: “Yet, Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand.”

We read further in the Talmud,  in a passage that refers to Ps. 139: “The dust of the first man was gathered from all parts of the earth, for it is written, Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.”  The Hebrew word translated here as “shaped” is also derived from the same root. In the same psalm verse, the word translated as “unformed substance” is “golem,” which, in Jewish folklore, is an artificial human being endowed with life.  A golem is similar to a human being, except that it cannot speak or procreate.  In these tales, one who is very righteous and has a very good reason to do so can create a golem out of mud or clay. 

The Hebrew word golem has a second meaning.  Not only is a golem an artificial man created from mud and clay; the word golem can also mean a human embryo.  Perhaps for this reason, an Hasidic master said:

There is even a greater miracle that creating a golem.  It’s when a human person becomes a true human being, a morally and spiritually developed individual, a person who has become all they can be, who has crafted their soul into a work of art.  When a person has worked hard to acquire wisdom, love, empathy, compassion and understanding– and has succeeded– that’s the true miracle.

In this way we are called to participate in God’s act of creation.   By striving to grow in wisdom and virtue, in some sense we create ourselves anew.

Jesus gives us the opportunity to make a new start in life.  We read in 2 Cor. 5:17: “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”  As St. Paul tells us in Eph. 4:21-24:  “you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.”  Forgiveness gives us new life by freeing us from shame and guilt.  Forgiving gives us new life by freeing us from anger and past hurts, from making judgments and executing punishment. 

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

What kind of bush was the burning bush?  The Hebrew word simply means “bush” or “thorn bush.”  The word is found only in this text and in Deut. 33:16, in which Moses blesses the tribe of Joseph: “With the bounty of earth and its fullness,/ And the favor of the Presence in the Bush,/ May these rest on the head of Joseph,/ On the crown of the elect of his brothers.”  (The New American Bible unfortunately translates this verse, “the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai.”)

The Greek Orthodox monastery on Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine’s, claims to have the original burning bush.  The Chapel of the Holy Bush is said to sit on top of its roots, and the bush itself is just a few yards away.  The first community gathered around this shrine. It is now a place of pilgrimage.  Pilgrims enter it without shoes, according to God’s command to Moses.  According to the Fathers of the Church, the bush prefigured of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, who bore within her the fire of the Godhead without being consumed.

The bush at St. Catherine’s is of the genus rubus sanctus, a type of rose with pink flowers.  Others think the bush may have been an acacia, a thorny tree with small yellow, purple, or red flowers.  But we will never really know the type of bush.

In the midrash, we are told the bush was commonly used as a garden hedge and grew under all different types of conditions (Exodus Rabbah 3:2). We are told elsewhere in the midrash that “it is the nature of a thornbush, that if one thrusts his hand into it, the hand suffers no hurt because the thorns are bent downwards. But when one tried to pull out the hand, the thorns catch it and one cannot withdraw it” (Yalkut Shimoni).  Here the bush is a metaphor for the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt.  At first the Egyptians welcomed the Israelites, but then did not allow them to leave.

There are important lessons to be learned from the burning bush.  The Talmud gives us this verse to be recited as part of a remedy for fever: “O thorn, O thorn, not because thou art higher than all other trees did the Holy One, blessed be He, cause His Presence to rest upon thee, but because thou art lower than all other trees did He cause His Presence to rest upon thee” (B. Talmud Shabbath 67a).  Similarly, the midrash tells us:

Once a heathen asked Rabbi Joshua ben Korha, “Why did your God appear to Moses in such a lowly type of bush?”  The Rabbi answered him, “If it had been a carob tree or a sycamore, would you not have asked the same question?  But, I will answer you.  Why in a thorn bush?  To teach us there is no place where the Divine Presence is not to be found, even in a lowly bush.  (Exodus Rabbah 2:9)

Thus the lowly, unwanted bramble teaches to be humble, so that we may be aware of God’s Presence.  God is present in the lowly and meek, in what is ordinary.  God is always present among us; we just have to look for him.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

God never told Adam not to eat the apple from the tree in the Garden of Eden.  What he said was: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” (Gen. 2:16-17).  Eve added to God’s command when she told the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die’” (Gen. 3:2-3).  But she did not call the fruit an apple. The fruit was pleasing, but nowhere in the Bible is it called an apple.  The Hebrew word simply means “fruit.”

The word sometimes translated as “apple” may mean the pupil of the eye, as in Ps. 17:8: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”  Elsewhere it may mean a lemon or a citron rather than an apple, as in Song of Songs 2:3: “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my lover among men.”

The Talmud comes up with several possibilities.  The apple may have been a grape: “R. Meir holds that the tree of which Adam ate was the vine, since the thing that most causes wailing to a man is wine, as it says, And he drank of the wine and was drunken.” This is a reference to Noah, who got drunk after such a long time in the ark. 

Or, the apple may have been a fig: “R. Nehemiah says it was the fig tree, so that they repaired their misdeed with the instrument of it, as it says, And they sewed fig leaves together.”  This is from the story of Adam and Eve.  This possibility makes a lot of sense, since they sewed the fig leaves together right after eating the fruit. 

Or, the apple may have been wheat: “R. Judah says it was wheat, since a child does not know how to call ‘father’ and ‘mother’ until it has had a taste of grain” (B. Talmud Berakoth 40a).  Since cereal, made from grain, is usually the first solid food a baby eats, wheat was thought to induce knowledge. Actually, there is a Hebrew pun here: the word for “sin” is similar to the word for “wheat.”

So how did the fruit become an apple?  There may be a Latin pun in this regard: the Latin word for “evil” is similar to the word for “apple.”

So who says puns are the lowest form of humor, when in fact they go back to Adam and Eve?

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is preaching in his hometown.  The people listen to him with admiration until he repeats the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath: “Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.” Jesus’ point is that the people who knew him best—they asked, ““Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”—would not listen to his message but strangers and foreigners would.  While Jesus uses this story only as an illustration, it is nevertheless significant (1 Kings 17:17–24).  Miracles are performed for widows.  For the widow of Zarephath the prophet Elijah provides unlimited flour and oil during a time of famine. When her son dies, Elijah restores him to life.  The widow recognizes that Elijah is indeed a prophet.    

Elijah’s successor, Elisha, performs a similar miracle in 2 Kings 4:1–7:

A certain woman, the widow of one of the guild prophets, cried out to Elisha: “My husband, your servant, is dead. You know that he revered the Lord, yet now his creditor has come to take my two children into servitude.” Elisha answered her, “What am I to do for you? Tell me what you have in the house.” She replied, “This servant of yours has nothing in the house but a jug of oil.” He said, “Go out, borrow vessels from all your neighbors—as many empty vessels as you can. Then come back and close the door on yourself and your children; pour the oil into all the vessels, and as each is filled, set it aside.” So she went out. She closed the door on herself and her children and, as they handed her the vessels, she would pour in oil. When all the vessels were filled, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” He answered, “There is none left.” And then the oil stopped. She went and told the man of God, who said, “Go sell the oil to pay off your creditor; with what remains, you and your children can live.”

In the first story, Elijah revives the widow’s son, who would be expected to provide her.  In the second story, Elisha enables the widow to provide for herself and her children.  In the New Testament, Jesus also restores a widow’s only son to life:

 Soon afterward Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.             (Luke 7:11–17).

In biblical times the government did not provide any social services for the needy and vulnerable.  Lacking husbands to care for them, widows, along with orphans and aliens, come under God’s special protection.  We read, for example, in Deut. 24:17-21:

You shall not deprive the resident alien or the orphan of justice, nor take the clothing of a widow as pledge. For, remember, you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord, your God, redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do this. When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; let it be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings. When you knock down the fruit of your olive trees, you shall not go over the branches a second time; let what remains be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow. When you pick your grapes, you shall not go over the vineyard a second time; let what remains be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow.

The vulnerable may not be oppressed: “Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts” (Zech. 7:10).  We find the same command in the New Testament: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).

All our politicians should keep this in mind.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

King Cyrus of Persia was inspired by God.  Isaiah calls him God’s anointed, that is, a Messiah.   God says to him, “I will give you treasures of darkness, riches hidden away,/ That you may know I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by name” (Is. 45:1, 3). Cyrus sends the people of Israel home to their own land, that they may rebuild the Temple and restore its liturgy:

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Those among you who belong to any part of his people, may their God be with them! Let them go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the house of the Lord the God of Israel, that is, the God who is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 7:1-5)

After the second Temple was constructed, and Passover was celebrated, Ezra too came up from Babylon. Ezra was delegated by Cyrus’ successor, Artaxerxes, “to appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people in West-of-Euphrates, to all, that is, who know the laws of your God. Instruct those who do not know these laws” (Ezra 7:25).

Ezra was a priest whose ancestry is traced back as far as Aaron (Ezra 7:1-5).  But more important, “he was a scribe, well-versed in the law of Moses given by the Lord, the God of Israel (Ezra 7:6).  He “had set his heart on the study and practice of the law of the Lord and on teaching statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).  He is described as a “priest-scribe, the scribe versed in matters concerning the Lord’s commandments and statutes for Israel” (Ezra 7:11).

In Sunday’s first reading, we heard how Ezra called an assembly and read the Book of the Law to all the “men, women, and those children old enough to understand.”  By doing so, Ezra established the foundations of rabbinic Judaism, in which Christianity finds its roots.  Only by the study and practice of the Torah would Israel survive the Roman onslaught and the ravages of war and destruction.  The Talmud says of Ezra that “in ancient times when the Torah was forgotten from Israel, Ezra came up from Babylon and established it” (B. Talmud Sukkah 20a).  Ezra is compared to Moses:

Had Moses not preceded him, Ezra would have been worthy of receiving the Torah for Israel. Of Moses it is written, And Moses went up unto God, and of Ezra it is written, He, Ezra, went up from Babylon.  As the going up of the former refers to the [receiving of the] Law, so does the going up of the latter. Concerning Moses, it is stated: And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments; and concerning Ezra, it is stated: For Ezra had prepared his heart to expound the law of the Lord [his God] to do it and to teach Israel statutes and judgments.  (B. Talmud Sanhedrin 21b)

Without schools and teachers, there is no way to pass on knowledge and tradition, no way to transmit faith to the next generation.  Without teachers, there is no need for priests.  Let us be teachers by word and example.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear the story of the wedding of Cana (John 2:1-11).  Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding, and Mary was there.  The family runs short of wine, and Mary tells Jesus about it.  Jesus first asks the servers to fill six stone jars with water, and then he turns the water into wine.  The evangelist explains: “Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.”

If there were in fact six stone water jars, the water was probably used for domestic rather than religious purposes. The large stone jars would have been very heavy. Twenty gallons of water alone—minus the stone jar– weigh 161 pounds, according to Yahoo Answers.   More important, for purification the people used a mikveh (plural mikva’ot), a pool of clear water.  The water in a mikveh must come from a natural source, not from water that is drawn and stored in a vessel.  We know from archaeological evidence that mikva’ot were used during Jesus’ time.  Excavations in Jerusalem, in small villages, and in rural locations have uncovered many mikva’ot that date from the Second Temple period (100 BCE to 70 CE).

The purpose of immersion in a mikveh is ritual cleansing.  A person can become “unclean” through contact with the dead (Num. 19) or a defiling object, through a bodily discharge (Lev. 15), or by physical contact with a menstruating or postpartum woman (Lev. 15). Immersion is also part of the ceremony of conversion.  New vessels and utensils purchased from non-Jews are immersed in the mikveh (Num. 31: 22–23).  Some still practice immersion for devotional purposes on the eve of the Sabbath and festivals.

Perhaps the water in John’s six stone jars was used for the washing of the hands required before eating bread.  But this would appear to be too much water for such a simple purpose.  More likely the water was used for cooking, laundry, and ordinary washing.  No, John has a theological message for us, not a history lesson.  He is teaching us something about the new wine of the Gospel.  He is not concerned with water, wine, or Jewish practice, but rather with the redemption brought by Christ. 

For the rabbis, the primary purpose of immersion was to become holy.  In the Talmud, Rabbi Akiba quotes Jer. 17:13: “The Lord is the hope (mikveh) of Israel.”  Playing on words, he adds, “just as the fountain (mikveh) renders clean the unclean, so does the Holy One, blessed be He, render clean Israel” (B. Talmud Yoma 85b).  Let us also strive to become holy.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.