for September 25
Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time

An Anglican scholar once startled his audience when he began his lecture on the Book of Ecclesiastes by saying it was the most religious book in the Bible, since its rather negative depiction of human life in general reminds us what life would be like if there were no God. Certainly that is the gist of today’s passage with its twelve sets of opposites describing human activity. While the presentation is accurate, minimally I would want to challenge whether a time to kill, or a time to hate, or a time of war are part of the divine plan. Note too that this skeptical author writing several centuries before Christ did not believe in life after death.

Whether or not that is what he is referring to in his conclusion about the tasks God has appointed for humans to do, I question that we will never discover the work, from beginning to end, that God has done. Even if we exclude the Christian belief that God sent Jesus to accomplish the divine plan of salvation, can we not affirm the beauty of God’s creation, as the psalms often do?

Father Addison Wright, a specialist in general about what in the Old Testament is called Wisdom Literature, offers this interesting evaluation of not just today’s passage but of the Book of Ecclesiastes as a whole.

In no way can the author be said to have had a close personal relationship with God. Clearly, countless thousands of devout people travel in the dark as did the author, and they can find dignity in the believing community because this book was deemed worthy to have a place among the biblical writings.

Our gospel passage begins with Jesus off praying in solitude. How often do we think about Jesus alone in prayer? He could have been praising God by praying the psalms, pious practicing Jew that he generally was. But he also prayed at important moments in his ministry as when he was about to choose the twelve or when he was about to reveal to the disciples what we find in today’s reading.

He begins by asking them who the crowds say he is. The answer is threefold. Some say he is another John the Baptist because John proclaimed the nearness of the messiah for which they were longing. Some say he is Elijah because Elijah is described as not dying but as being taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, and so there arose the belief that Elijah would come back before the messiah came. Jesus says elsewhere that John the Baptist fulfilled that role. Finally some say Jesus is a prophet because there had not been a major prophet in over 500 years.

Then Jesus asks the disciples the same question we can ask ourselves. “Who do you say that I am?” Peter on behalf of all replies the Christ, the term Christ meaning the anointed one, and thus the long-awaited messiah and savior. Even though they are correct, Jesus rebukes them; a more recent translation says sternly ordered. More importantly they are not to tell anyone because the people were expecting a very different messiah, a political one or a military one or a priestly one.

Jesus rather is about to go to Jerusalem to be rejected and put to death. Jesus as we now know is going to be a suffering messiah.
—Edward O’Donnell SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.