A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Ezekiel 17:22-24, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Mark 4:26-34.
God Invests in Us Through the Liturgy of the Mass (11th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B)
In today’s First Reading for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time from Ezekiel 17:22-24, the prophet Ezekiel communicates a word from God in which the image of a cedar crest is employed to prophesy the coming of the Messiah. The Cedar of Lebanon, a symbol of strength, beauty, and longevity, is a powerful metaphor that resonates with our modern understanding of endurance and resilience. It is mentioned numerous times throughout the sacred Scriptures and is often associated with God’s presence and believers’ righteousness. The verse, “I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,” may relate to the super or perfect human nature of Christ Jesus being the best or top of humanity that God has formed.
Mountains in the holy Scripture are where God descends to instruct and show His mighty power. They are also places where the prophets go up to encounter God. In today’s reading, God says that He will “plant it [the tender shoot of the cedar tree] on a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain heights of Israel,” which, again, refers to the arrival of the Messiah, who will have the authority to teach and give commandments to Israel, and whom they will go up to meet.
According to the prophecy, the following verses of today’s First Reading borrow from language found in Genesis’ creation account to draw the image of a new creation and an ecclesia or Church that the Messiah will establish, saying: “It [the new cedar tree] shall put forth branches and bear fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.” The Gospel of John’s account of Jesus calling Himself the vine and us the branches also relates well to this prophecy.[1] This distinct community’s massive and far-reaching size should quickly lead to the conclusion that this new ecclesia that the Messiah will establish will be universal: a catholic community accessible to all.
The final stanza of today’s First Reading also uniquely points to the Messiah in that it is the source document of the Blessed Mother Mary’s Magnificat.[2] Whereas the Lord God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, saying, “And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree,” Mary, Mother of the Church, sings, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness,” and she continues, “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.” Indeed, through the work of His Son, Christ Jesus, and the sacraments of His Church, God truly does lift of the dead and the low and raise them into the resurrection of His Son.
This prophecy from Ezekiel is only reinforced through Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel Reading from Mark 4:26-34, about the seed that is scattered and grows itself, and the mustard seed that begins its life as one of the smallest of seeds but grows disproportionately to its beginning. God lifts up the lowly.
These readings show the principle of human investment, which states that things grow according to the three acts of investment. The three acts of investments are: (1) Receiving investment from others. We experience this kind of investment as children when our parents invest in our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being; (2) From receiving investment, we learn the importance of investing in others; and (3) From being invested in and learning the importance of investing in others, we invest in ourselves. Thus, the three acts of human investment match Jesus’ command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as you love yourself. That is, because God loved us first, we invest our love in God. We also invest in being the Good Samaritan by investing in the good for others. However, because we can only invest in what we have received, we can only invest in our neighbor as much as we have invested in ourselves.
In the context of the spiritual life, there is no more excellent path to the three acts of investment than those offered through the liturgy of the Catholic Mass, where God invests in us by forgiving us of our sins and bestowing upon us all the graces and helps we need to have eternal life through the sacraments of His Church, which is also an act of investing in ourselves through the reception of those sacraments and rightly responding to God speaking to us in prayer and through others. For example, in the Sacrament of Baptism, God invests in us by cleansing us of humanity’s original sin, making us members of the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in us. In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Christ Jesus invests in us by having His Body commune fully with our body being made like Him. In the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, God invests in us by breaking down the barriers between us that our sins had erected. In the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, God invests in us by giving the man a woman to be his helpmate and someone to sacrifice his life for; in turn, the man and woman share with God to invest in their children.
When we rightly respond to God, we show obedience to Him, which is the best way to invest in God because obedience leads to thankfulness, and thankfulness leads to sacrifice, and sacrifice leads to life. When she sends us forth from the liturgy, having prepared us fully to be Christ-like in the world, the Church’s hope is that we will invest in all those who bear the image and likeness of God so that they, too, might become partakers of the divine nature; that is, investment partner in communion with Him.
The Divine Symphony of the Catholic Mass, as a form of human investment, is a very beneficial way to approach worship and how to live out the call of the liturgy to be in Christ and be a type of Christ in the world by being a Eucharistic people who invest in the world that God loves by sharing the Beloved of God with them. Investing in God, neighbor, and self through obedience, thanksgiving, and sacrifice is pleasing God and is what the Apostle Paul called in today’s Second Reading from 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 the work we do “whether we are at home or away,” meaning that we obey God, give thanks to God, and sacrifice (put God and others first) not just when doing those things are easy, but also when they are difficult and when they cost us something.
The meaning of the Cedar of Lebanon as a symbol of strength, beauty, and long life can be seen as ways of describing Christ Jesus and His Church. Likewise, since we are part of the Body of Christ, these are also attributes that we should aspire to and that the gifts of God, the celebration of the Catholic Mass, and His sacraments are forming in us to share.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
[1] Cf. John 15:5.
[2] Luke 1:46-55
