30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 27 October 2024

Lectionary Readings: Jer 31:7-9; Ps. 126, 1-2. 2-3. 4-5. 6; Heb 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52

Dear readers, shalom from Israel-Jerusalem!

One aspect of this Sunday’s liturgy is the invitation to reflect on the centrality of Israel among the Nations in order to reveal God to all humanity.

In the first reading we learn that God is concerned with his people Israel. He brings them back from the ends of the earth, guides them, and gathers them from all parts of the earth along safe paths. His image is that of a Father, and therefore the people are his children. The Psalm transforms this action of God into prayer, proclaiming the wonders of God for his people, taking them out of slavery and into freedom, from a situation of suffering, sadness, and darkness to light.

Furthermore, the Psalm also shows that the way in which the people celebrate God’s action gives testimony among the nations of their God-given good deeds: “Then they said among the nations, ‘What wonderful things the Lord has done for them!’” In this way, Israel, in its search for faithfulness to the Word of God, makes God’s universality transparent to all. God’s call to Israel is aimed at all humanity. For Israel, the Father is the Father (Creator) of all humanity. God has his own way of acting, moving from the particular (the people of Israel) to the universal. This is the fundamental principle of the history of salvation that is affirmed in the Gospel: “for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:32). That is, grace enters the world through Israel.

Therefore, it is within the Judaism of his time that we must listen to the teachings of Jesus and the entire context of the writings of the New Testament. The incarnation and resurrection of Jesus as the kerygma of the Christian tradition are affirmations that emerge from within the Judaism of his time and not from the pagan world; just as the proclamation of Jesus as the expected Messiah is made by Jews, his disciples. We see in today’s Gospel that the blind man of Jericho recognizes Jesus in the lineage of David: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”, that is, his affirmation comes from within Judaism, from the Messianic hope of the lineage of David. Jesus, fulfilling the universality of Israel’s vocation: “to be light to the Nations” (Is 42:6; 49:6), inaugurates this new time for all humanity. Faith in the God who reveals himself to Israel, through Jesus the Christ (Messiah = Anointed One), a Jewish man, opens the eyes of humanity’s faith.

May we all have a Holy Sunday and the week that begins and may we keep our eyes of faith open in following the Word of God that through Jesus came to us, who come from the Nations.

This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Bro. Elio Passeto, NDS  Israel- Jerusalem, Director

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