Episode 146: 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
In today’s episode, we focus on apologetical details in the first reading (Wisdom 9:13-18b) and Gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33) for this upcoming 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C. Two of the details in the first reading relate to the apologetical topic of the inspired status of the Book of Wisdom. The other relates to the problem of evil. The detail from the Gospel reading relates to two apologetical topics: the skeptical challenge that Jesus is immoral for telling us to “hate” our parents and his divinity.
Hey everyone,
Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.
I’m Dr. Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.
In today’s episode, we’re going to focus on apologetical details in the first reading (Wisdom 9:13-18b) and Gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33) for this upcoming 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C. Two of the details in the first reading relate to the apologetical topic of the inspired status of the Book of Wisdom. The other relates to the problem of evil. The detail from the Gospel reading relates to two apologetical topics: the skeptical challenge that Jesus is immoral for telling us to “hate” our parents and his divinity.
Let’s start with the first reading, which is taken from Wisdom 9:13-18b. The author writes,
Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
and unsure are our plans.
For the corruptible body burdens the soul
and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.
And scarce do we guess the things on earth,
and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;
but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?
Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from on high?
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
The first thing I want to highlight is a set of details present in this passage. The first is the statement that the corruptible body “burdens the soul.” The second is what immediately follows: “the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.”
The apologetical significance of these two details is that they have both linguistic and thought parallels in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. Paul writes,
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety.
Concerning the linguistic parallels, the Greek word that Paul uses for “tent” when speaking of the body is skēnos. There’s only one other passage where this word is used in biblical Greek—the entire Septuagint and the New Testament, and it’s this Wisdom 9 passage.
Furthermore, the Greek word that Paul uses for “anxiety” [barēo] when he speaks of us sighing with anxiety while in this tent means the same thing as the word used in Wisdom 9 for “burdens” [barūno]—they both mean to “weigh down.”
Now, the thought parallels follow from these linguistic parallels, and they’re pretty obvious. So, there’s no need to comment on them.
What does deserve mention is that Protestant scholars have affirmed these parallels and think Paul seems to be borrowing from Wisdom 9. Protestant scholar Bruce Metzger is one example. He admits that Paul borrowed thoughts and phrases from Wisdom 9 in Bishop Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers. The late Protestant exegete E.H. Plumptre, in The Commentary for Schools: Corinthians, the First Epistle, wrote, “The whole passage [2 Cor. 5:4] is strikingly parallel to Wisdom 9:15.”
Even though the mere borrowing concepts from Wisdom 9 doesn’t prove Paul thought Wisdom was inspired, when combined with other allusions and parallels that the NT authors make with the Dueterocanon, it contributes to the cumulative case for the Deuterocanon being inspired.
The second detail that I want to highlight is the theme of the limitations of our understanding. The author states,
“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends? . . . the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans . . . scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty.”
The apologetical topic that this relates to is the problem of evil. When we’re faced with evil in our lives, we often can’t see the good that such a permitted evil is ordered to. And often we’re tempted to think there must be no good.
Here is where our first reading comes into play. Given the limitations of our knowledge and understanding, we shouldn’t expect to see or know the good that God will order permitted evils toward.
So, the mere lack of sight of a good doesn’t entail there is no good.
Often our problem with evil rises from our failure to recognize our own limitations. Once we recognize our own limitations the problem of evil loses its force.
Let’s now turn to the Gospel reading, which is taken from Luke 14:25-33. The verse I want to draw your attention to is verse 26, where Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
An unbeliever reading this, or even a believer for that matter, might be inclined to think, “Why would I follow a man who says that we must ‘hate’ his mother and father? This sounds more like a pscyho!”
“Hate” can be used as a Hebrew idiom to mean “love less” or “be subordinated to.” Matthew, in Matthew 10:37, sheds light on this teaching of Jesus by giving us the meaning of Christ’s words as recorded by Luke. He records Jesus saying, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (10:37).
So, by “hate,” Christ meant “love less”—he who doesn’t love mother and father less than me is not worthy of being my disciple. To state it positively, we must love Christ more than mother and father.
Now, this in turn reveals Christ’s understanding of himself to be divine. Who has greater authority even over mother and father? God! Since he’s the author of such relationships, he has authority over them and thereby can rightfully demand the love and devotion over, above, and before the love and devotion owed to our parents.
Since Christ makes this kind of demand, it follows that he views himself to be almighty God.
Conclusion
Well, my friends, that’s all I have for this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. The first reading and Gospel reading for this upcoming 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C doesn’t sell us short when it comes to apologetical material:
- We have material that contributes to the discussion of whether Wisdom is inspired,
- We have material that helps us think through the problem of evil, and
- We have material that proves Jesus viewed himself to be divine.
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I hope you have a blessed 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C. Until next time, God Bless.