Sixth Week of Pentecost Homily Help
Sixth Week of Pentecost – The Sending of the Apostles
Book of Offering Page 425 or 492 –
Reading: 1Cor 12:12-13, 27-30 Gospel: Mt 10:16-25
1Corinthians 12:12-13, 27-30
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it. Some people God has designated in the church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Biblical Exegesis
[12:12–26] The image of a body is introduced to explain Christ’s relationship with believers (1 Cor 12:12). 1 Cor 12:13 applies this model to the church: by baptism all, despite diversity of ethnic or social origins, are integrated into one organism. 1 Cor 12:14–26 then develop the need for diversity of function among the parts of a body without threat to its unity.
[12:27–30] Paul now applies the image again to the church as a whole and its members (1 Cor 12:27). The lists in 1 Cor 12:28–30 spell out the parallelism by specifying the diversity of functions found in the church (cf. Rom 12:6–8; Eph 4:11).
[12:28] First, apostles: apostleship was not mentioned in 1 Cor 12:8–10, nor is it at issue in these chapters, but Paul gives it pride of place in his listing. It is not just one gift among others but a prior and fuller gift that includes the others. They are all demonstrated in Paul’s apostolate, but he may have developed his theology of charisms by reflecting first of all on his own grace of apostleship (cf. 1 Cor 3:5–4:14; 9:1–27; 2 Cor 2:14–6:13; 10:1–13:30, esp. 1 Cor 11:23 and 12:12).
II. From Aphrahat, Demonstration XXII
“Remember that the Apostle also said, We shall judge angels. And our Lord said to His disciples, You shall sit on twelve thrones, and judge twelve tribes of the house of Israel. And Ezekiel said concerning righteous men, that they shall judge Ahola and Aholibah. Since, then, the righteous are to judge the wicked, He has made clear concerning them that they shall not come into judgment. And as to what the apostles say, that we shall judge angels, hear, and I will instruct you. The angels who shall be judged by the apostles are the priests who have violated the law; as the Prophet said, The lips of the priest shall guard knowledge, and the law shall they inquire of his mouth; because he is the angel of the Lord, the most mighty. The angels who are the priests, of whose mouth the law is inquired, when they transgress the law, shall be judged at the last by the apostles, and the priests who observe the law.”
Matthew 10:16-25
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
Biblical Exegesis
[10:17] The persecutions attendant upon the post-resurrection mission now begin to be spoken of. Here Matthew brings into the discourse sayings found in Mk 13 which deals with events preceding the parousia.
[10:21] See Mi 7:6 (“For son treats father contemptuously, Daughter rises up against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household”). which is cited in Mt 10:35, 36.
[10:22] To the end: the original meaning was probably “until the parousia.” But it is not likely that Matthew expected no missionary disciples to suffer death before then, since he envisages the martyrdom of other Christians (Mt 10:21). For him, the end is probably that of the individual’s life (see Mt 10:28).
[10:23] Before the Son of Man comes: since the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age had not taken place when this gospel was written, much less during the mission of the Twelve during Jesus’ ministry, Matthew cannot have meant the coming to refer to the parousia. It is difficult to know what he understood it to be: perhaps the “proleptic parousia” of Mt 28:16–20, or the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, viewed as a coming of Jesus in judgment on unbelieving Israel.
[10:25] Beelzebul: see Mt 9:34 for the charge linking Jesus with “the prince of demons,” who is named Beelzebul in Mt 12:24. The meaning of the name is uncertain; possibly, “lord of the house.
II. From St. Ephrem, On Admonition and Repentance
14. When you stand in prayer, cry in your soul: Have mercy on me, I am a sinner and weak; be gracious, 0 God, to my weakness, and grant strength to me to pray a prayer that is pleasing to your Will. “Punish not mine enemies, take not vengeance on them that hate me; but grant them in your grace that they may become doers of your Will.” At the time of prayer and petition, in contemplations let us bow our head before the Mighty One.
16. Be a lover of poverty, and be desirous of neediness. If you have them both for your portion, you are an inheritor on high. Despise not the voice of the poor and give him no cause to curse you. For if he curse whose palate is bitter, the Lord will hear his petition. If his garments are foul, wash them in water, which freely is bought. Has a poor man entered into your house? Then God has entered into your house; God dwells within your abode. He, whom you have refreshed from his troubles, from troubles will deliver you. Have you washed the feet of the stranger? You have washed away the filth of your sins. Have you prepared a table before him? Behold God eating [at it], and Christ likewise drinking [at it], and the Holy Spirit resting [on it]: Is the poor satisfied at your table and refreshed? You have satisfied Christ your Lord. He is ready to be your rewarder; in presence of angels and men He will confess that you have fed His hunger; He will give thanks that you did give Him drink, and quench His thirst.
Sample Homily
The Maronite Church again this Sunday comtemplates the Apostolic foundations of the Church. We must remember that from earliest centuries the Church self-identified as being – One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. What does it mean that our faith is Apostolic and Christic? It means that our faith is grounded on the witness of the Apostles who were given the most cherished and blessed experience of encountering and seeing the Risen Lord, our faith is their faith or rather their faith is our faith, for we are their children in the faith and our faith is in Jesus Christ, the Crucified Lord, who has broken the bonds of death. He appeared to his Apostles and later to Paul on the road to Damascus, he strengthened their faith and removed as in the dramatic encounter with Thomas, their doubt. Then he sealed their faith with the Holy Spirit.
We see in today’s readings and Divine Liturgy that the Church is not just like a body, but it is a Body, the Body of Christ. Drawing from the Fathers of the Church, who saw in human beings the image of the Triune God, in that humanity like God is by nature triune so too the Church. Of course the One God we know from our Apostolic Faith is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Fathers saw in the nature of men of women the unity of body, soul, and spirit. The Church being a community of human beings is also body, soul, and spirit. The body of the Church allows it to be a material reality in the world, it is visible, and has visible material attributes; the soul of the Church is that it is animated by the presence of Jesus Christ, the Church lives in, through, and with Jesus, it is His living presence in the world and He is its life blood. The spirit of the Church is its calling and its end, when it celebrates the Holy Mysteries, preaches the Good News of salvation, forgives sins, anoints with the oil of salvation, and binds men and women in vows of eternal fidelity, the spirit of the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit fulfills its calling of bestowing the Grace of Christ upon all humanity.