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Honesty and trust. These
are theme of this Sunday's readings. This is best said
in the alternateGospel: |
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“The person who is trustworthy in very small
matters is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small
matters is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore,
you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who
will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not
trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will
give you what is yours?
No servant can serve two masters.
He will either
hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one
and despise the other.
You cannot serve
both God and mammon.”
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Hezekiah
2 Kings 18 - 2 Kings 20,
2
Chronicles 32:30 |
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Introduction |
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Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, was
twenty-five years old when he becomes king,
and he reigns twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name is Abi, daughter of
Zechariah.
He pleases the LORD, just as his forefather
David had done.
Hezekiah removes the high places, shatters the
pillars, and cuts down the sacred poles. He
smashs the bronze serpent called Nehushtan
which Moses had made, because up to that time
the Israelites are burning incense to it.
He puts his
trust in the LORD, the God of Israel; and
there is no one like before his time, or will
there ever be among all the kings of Judah.
Loyal to the LORD,
Hezekiah does not away from |
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him, but observes the
commandments which the LORD had given Moses. The
LORD is with him, and he prospers in all that he
set out to do. He rebels against the king of
Assyria and does not serve him.
He also subjugates the watchtowers and walled
cities of the Philistines, all the way to Gaza and
its territory.
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The Fall of
Samaria
In the fourth year of King Hezekiah,
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, attacks Samaria,
lays siege to it, and after three years
captures it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah,
the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel,
Samaria falls.
The king of Assyria then deports the
Israelites to Assyria and settles them in
Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in
the cities of the Medes.
This comes about because they did not heed the
warning of the LORD, they violated his
covenant and did not fulfill the commandments
given through Moses.
Sennacherib, King of Assyria
In the
fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, goes on an expedition against
all the fortified cities of Judah and captures
them.
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Hezekiah, king of Judah, sends a message to
the king of Assyria at Lachish to leave Judah
in return for paying whatever tribute he
imposes. The king of Assyria demands three
hundred talents of silver and thirty talents
of gold from Hezekiah, king of Judah.
Hezekiah pays him from the funds that are in
the temple of the LORD and in the palace
treasuries. He breaks up the door panels and
the uprights of the temple of the LORD which
he himself had ordered to be overlaid with
gold, and gives the gold to the king of
Assyria.
The king of
Assyria sends the general, the lord
chamberlain, and the commander from Lachish
with a great army to King Hezekiah at
Jerusalem. On their arrival in Jerusalem, they stop at the
conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the
fuller's field.
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They call for the
king, who sends out to them Eliakim, son of
Hilkiah, the master of the palace; Shebnah the
scribe; and the herald Joah, son of Asaph.
The Assyrians deliver a warning to the people of
Judah to not let Hezekiah deceive them, since he
will not be able to protect them from the
Assyrians. The Assyrians then promise the people
of Judah that if they surrender the king will
provide for them their own vine and of their own
fig-tree, and drink the water of their own
cistern. They also say that the king will deliver
them to a land like their own, a land of grain and
wine, of bread and orchards, of olives, oil and
fruit syrup.
But even with
these promises the people remain silent and do not
answer him one word, for the king had ordered them
not to answer him. Then the master of the palace,
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe, and
the |
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herald Joah, son of Asaph, come to Hezekiah
with their garments torn, and report to him what
the commander had said. When King Hezekiah hears this, in his despair he
goes into the temple of the LORD. Then he sends
Eliakim, the master of the palace, Shebnah the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, to tell the
prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, about what the king
of Assyrian had said. |
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tells them that the LORD says not to be frightened
by the words they have heard, with which the
servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed
Him. Isaiah tells the messengers that the LORD has
said that He will put in the king of Assyria such
a spirit that, when he hears a certain report, he
will return to his own land, and there He will
cause him to fall by the sword. When the commander, on his return, hears that the
king of Assyria had withdrawn from Lachish, he
finds him besieging Libnah. The king of Assyria
hears a report that Tirhakah, king of
Ethiopia, had come out to fight
against him. So he sends envoys to
Hezekiah with this message to threaten
him once more.
Hezekiah takes the letter from the hand of the
messengers and reads it. Then he goes up to the
temple of the LORD, and prays before the LORD for
help against Sennacherib.
The Angel of the LORD |
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Then Isaiah
sends a message to Hezekiah saying that the
LORD, the God of Israel, in answer to his
prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, has listened. Isaiah said that
because the king of Assyria insulted and
blasphemed against the LORD in three years
the remaining survivors of the house of
Judah shall again strike root below and bear
fruit above. For out of Jerusalem shall come
a remnant, and from Mount Zion, survivors.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. |
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Therefore,
Isaiah tells Hezekiah that the king of
Assyria shall not reach the city of Judah or
conquer it, for the LORD will shield and
save the city.
That night the angel of the LORD strikes
down one hundred and eighty-five thousand
men in the Assyrian camp. That morning
Sennacherib breaks camp, and goes back home
to Nineveh. While worshiping in the temple
of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer slay him with the sword. They flee
into the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon
reigns in his stead.
When Hezekiah becomes mortally ill, the
prophet Isaiah brings him a message from the
LORD to put his house in order, for he is
about to die. Hezekiah turns his face to the
wall and prays to the LORD telling Him how
faithfully and wholeheartedly he conducted
himself in His |
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presence, doing
what is pleasing to him. Hezekiah weeps
bitterly. |
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The Shadow
Before Isaiah leaves, the word of the LORD comes
to him and tells him to go back and deliver a
message to Hezekiah. Isaiah tells Hezekiah that
the LORD has heard his prayer and seen his
tears, and that the LORD will heal him and will
rescue him and this city from the hand of the
king of Assyria. He tells Hezekiah to go the
LORD'S temple in three days. There he will add
fifteen years to his life.
Isaiah then orders a poultice of figs to be
brought and applies it to the boil on Hezekiah
so that he might recover. Isaiah then invokes
the LORD, who makes the shadow retreat the ten
steps it had descended on the staircase to the
terrace of Ahaz.
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Hezekiah,
however, does not discharge his debt of
gratitude, for he has become proud.
Therefore anger descends upon him and upon
Judah and Jerusalem. But then Hezekiah
humbles himself and therefore the LORD does
not vent his anger on them during his time.
Foretelling the Fall of Judah
Because his blessing from the LORD, Hezekiah
now possesses great wealth and glory. He has
treasuries made for his silver, gold,
precious stones, spices, jewels, and other
precious things of all kinds. He also has
also storehouses for the harvest of
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grain, for wine
and oil, and barns for the various kinds of
cattle and for the flocks.
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He builds
cities for himself, and he acquires sheep
and oxen in great numbers, for God gives him
very great riches.
Hezekiah also stops the upper outflow of
water from Gihon and leads it underground
westward to the City of David. Hezekiah
prospers in all his undertakings.
When
Merodachbaladan, son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, hears that Hezekiah is ill, he
sends letters and gifts to him. This pleases
Hezekiah that he shows the messengers his
whole treasury, his silver, gold, spices and
fine oil, his armory - everything that his
kingdom owns.
Then Isaiah
the prophet comes to King Hezekiah and asks
what the messengers say to him, from where
they came, and what they had seen in his
house. Hezekiah tells Isaiah what happened
and adds that there is nothing in my
storerooms that |
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he did not
show them.
Then Isaiah
says to Hezekiah to hear the word of the
LORD. Isaiah tells Hezekiah that the time is
coming when all that is in his house, and
everything that his fathers have stored up
until this day, shall be carried off to
Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the
LORD.
Isaiah adds that some of his own bodily
descendants shall be taken and made servants
in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Hezekiah replies to Isaiah that the word of
the LORD which he has spoken is favorable
for he thinks there will be peace and
security in his lifetime.
Hezekiah dies and is buried at the approach
to the tombs of the descendants of David.
All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
pay him honor at his death. His son Manasseh
succeeds him as king. |
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For further
reading on the heroes of the Old Testament: |
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The Chariot of Israel: Exploits of the Prophet of Elijah
THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL: When Elijah was caught up
to heaven, his disciple Elisha cried out, "the
chariot of Israel, and its horsemen." Elisha was
referring not to the chariot but to the prophet.
This study of Elijah’s life will captivate you
as it walks you through a pivotal period in
Israel’s history, and illustrative maps will
give you a better picture of the physical
geography of this ancient land. |
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The First Book of Kings (Cambridge Bible Commentaries on the Old Testament) This
volume of commentary on the New English Bible text of the First Book of Kings
follows the pattern of the now well-established series on the Old and New
Testaments. The main divisions of the text are those provided by the New English
Bible itself, but these are further subdivided for the purposes of the
commentary, which is printed in short sections following the relevant portion of
the text. |
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Canon Robinson suggests that the editors of I
Kings compiled their history in order to teach
the Hebrews that their existence as Israel, the
covenant people of God, depended upon their
continuing loyalty to their own religious
traditions, and their refusal to exchange them
for the very different traditions of the
Canaanites among whom they lived.
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I & II Samuel: A Commentary (Old Testament
Library)
First sentence in
the book:
""THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL contain that
part of the history of Israel which describes
the foundation of the State, running from the
close of the period of the Judges to the
establishment of the united kingdom." |
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The Sunday Readings |
September 23,
2007:
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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First Reading From the
Book of Amos: |
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Am 8:4-7 |
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Hear this, you who
trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the
land! “When
will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that
we may display the wheat?
We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and
fix our scales for cheating!
We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for
a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we
will sell!”
The LORD has
sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a
thing they have done! |
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Responsorial From the Book of Psalms:
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Ps 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8 |
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R. Praise
the Lord who lifts up the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever.
R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.
Who is like the LORD, our God, who is
enthroned on high
and looks upon the heavens and the earth
below?
R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor
to seat them with princes,
with the princes of his own people.
R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Second Reading from
the Letter to Timothy |
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1 Tm 2:1-8 |
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Beloved:
First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for
everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that
we may lead a quiet and tranquil life
in all devotion and dignity.
This is good and
pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to
be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
For there is one
God.
There is also one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom
for all.
This was the
testimony at the proper time. For this I was
appointed preacher and apostle
— I am speaking the truth, I am not lying —,
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
It is my wish, then, that in every place the men
should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger
or argument. |
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Reading From
the Gospel of Luke:
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Lk 16:1-13 or
16:10-13 |
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Jesus said to his
disciples,
“A rich man had a steward who was reported to him
for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a
full account of your stewardship, because you can
no longer be my steward.’
The steward said to
himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is
taking the position of steward away from me? I am
not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I
shall do so that, when I am removed from the
stewardship, they may welcome me into their
homes.’
He called in his
master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he
said,
‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit
down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Then to another
the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’
He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’
The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory
note; write one for eighty.’
And the master
commended that dishonest steward for acting
prudently.
“For the children of this world are more prudent
in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light.
I tell you, make
friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so
that when it fails, you will be welcomed into
eternal dwellings.
The person who is
trustworthy in very small matters is also
trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is
dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest
in great ones.
If, therefore,
you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who
will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not
trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will
give you what is yours?
No servant can
serve two masters. He will either hate one and
love the other, or be devoted to one and despise
the other.
You cannot serve
both God and mammon.” |
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Or |
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Jesus said to his
disciples:
“The person who is trustworthy in very small
matters is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small
matters is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore,
you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who
will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not
trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will
give you what is yours?
No servant can serve two masters.
He will either
hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one
and despise the other.
You cannot serve
both God and mammon.” |
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References |
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The Chariot of Israel: Exploits of the Prophet of Elijah
THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL: When Elijah was caught up
to heaven, his disciple Elisha cried out, "the
chariot of Israel, and its horsemen." Elisha was
referring not to the chariot but to the prophet.
This study of Elijah’s life will captivate you
as it walks you through a pivotal period in
Israel’s history, and illustrative maps will
give you a better picture of the physical
geography of this ancient land. |
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Read more about the Liturgical Year |
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The Origins of the Liturgical Year (Pueblo
Books)
by
Thomas J. Talley (Author) The Rev. Dr.
Thomas J. Talley, Professor of Liturgics
at the General Theological Seminary in New
York, is one of the leading liturgists in
the country. He gives us a fresh
examination of the complex history of the
Liturgical Year. |
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The Cultural World of Jesus: Sunday by Sunday, Cycle C. (Bestseller! the Cultural World of Jesus: Sunday by Sunday)
by
John J. Pilch (Author)
Reader
Review: The book by Pilch provides
those who not only fill the pulpits across
this country but also all interested in
the cultural world in which Jesus lived
with a lot of pertinent information that
sheds light on a lot of areas that have
been "muddled" in the past. Yes, I highly
recommend this book. - James Mauldin |
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Learn more and read the Old Testament. |
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Preaching from the Old Testament
by Elizabeth Achtemeier (Author) Reader
Review: The author of these
thirty-two short chapters begins and ends
with the assumption that problems we
experience with the Old Testament are our
problem, not the Bible's. This
subordinating of the Bible reader to the
well-weathered book he holds in his hand
opens doors, not to forced harmonisations
of problematic passages, but to fresh
reappraisal of difficult texts on their
own terms. -
David A. Baer |
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The Navarre Bible: Pentateuch (The Navarre Bible: Old Testament)
This volume helps you make the first five
books of the Old Testament a vital part of
your spiritual reading and practical
growth in the Christian life. It contains
the full English and Latin texts of these
books, along with extensive and faithfully
Catholic commentaries. Like other volumes
in the world-renowned Navarre Bible
series, these commentaries draw on Church
documents, the exegesis of Fathers and
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Doctors of the Church, and the works of contemporary
spiritual writers — particularly St. Josemaría
Escrivá, who initiated the Navarre Bible
project. |
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Comments and
Suggestions are Most Welcome.
If you have any
comments or contributions, please
use the form in this link.
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Hot Chocolate
Rum Soufflés |
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When serving the soufflés at the end of a dinner
party, prepare them just before the meal is
served. Put them in the oven when the main course
is finished and serve piping hot. |
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Pictures!
with More than a Thousand Words |
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Way to go! |
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Church Sign: A Warning! |
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Negotiating
Before God. |
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please
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