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Aug 18: Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Wayyyyy back in January, I wrote about Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus—
In that article, I mentioned I was planning to do a video on my other Substack,
, about the subject of telling and showing. Well, I finally did it! If you’re interested in that kind of thing, give it a watch (and like/share/all that social media stuff).Reading 1
Jos 24:1-13
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In times past your fathers, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, dwelt beyond the River and served other gods. But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.
"Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and smote Egypt with the prodigies which I wrought in her midst. Afterward I led you out of Egypt, and when you reached the sea, the Egyptians pursued your fathers to the Red Sea with chariots and horsemen. Because they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between your people and the Egyptians, upon whom he brought the sea so that it engulfed them. After you witnessed what I did to Egypt, and dwelt a long time in the desert, I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your power. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them, the two kings of the Amorites, before you. Then Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, prepared to war against Israel. He summoned Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you; but I would not listen to Balaam. On the contrary, he had to bless you, and I saved you from him. Once you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, the men of Jericho fought against you, but I delivered them also into your power. And I sent the hornets ahead of you that drove them (the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites) out of your way; it was not your sword or your bow.
"I gave you a land that you had not tilled and cities that you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant."
Here at the end of the book we started <checks notes…> yesterday?, we get the Cliff’s Joshua’s Notes version of the post-flood Torah, from Abraham and the Patriarchs to Moses, the Exodus, and ultimately Joshua leading the way into the promised land.
The thread that runs through all of this is God. A tiny, nomadic tribe like the Israelites couldn’t possibly have conquered Canaan by themselves. The mere existence of Israel is evidence of God’s power.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 136:1-3, 16-18, 21-22 and 24
R. His mercy endures forever.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever;
Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his mercy endures forever;
Give thanks to the LORD of lords,
for his mercy endures forever.
R. His mercy endures forever.
Who led his people through the wilderness,
for his mercy endures forever;
Who smote great kings,
for his mercy endures forever;
And slew powerful kings,
for his mercy endures forever.
R. His mercy endures forever.
And made their land a heritage,
for his mercy endures forever;
The heritage of Israel his servant,
for his mercy endures forever;
And freed us from our foes,
for his mercy endures forever.
R. His mercy endures forever.
This is a song for Israelites to thank God for everything He did: leading them through the wilderness, conquering mighty kingdoms, inheriting the land.
But “heritage” has a double meaning. Yes, the promised land is a heritage to the Israelite descendants. But the world inherits eternal life, from the Jewish messiah. God’s plan starts with Israel, but doesn’t end there!
Alleluia
See 1 Thes 2:13
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but, as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Which is pretty unusual for Paul, to be honest. Usually, he writes stuff like this—
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ* does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
Gospel
Mt 19:3-12
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"
He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate."
They said to him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?"
He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery."
His disciples said to him, "If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry."
He answered, "Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."
This passage is largely we get the Church’s teachings on marriage. As Ross Douthat explains in To Change the Church, the reason the Church is so rigid on these positions is that they come from Jesus himself.
The Old Testament contains 613 laws, many of which are hard to follow. But even then, they couldn’t cover every situation and every exception.
That’s why Jesus himself pointed to two laws1 as the most important—“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Everything else is details. If you are truly following these, you know you’re doing the right thing.