Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 26, 2015 - Saturday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a and Luke 9:43b-45]Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I amcoming to dwell among you, says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people and he will dwell among you. [Zechariah]
Zechariah, like Haggai, was one of the post-exilic prophets. When the early Christian community sought to understand Jesus' life, death and resurrection in terms of their Jewish roots and rapidly changing composition (with gentiles joining), they turned to the scriptures they had, which was the Old Testament! Zechariah was a favorite and is quoted on Palm Sunday in regard to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Zechariah's many vivid images made him attractive to those seeking hope and consolation amid the ruins that the exiles returned to, but also to a Christian community that had to deal with preaching about the life of Jesus.
The universal tone of today's passage with its mention of "many nations" goes beyond Jewish boundaries, and the idea of the Lord dwelling among the people fit the growing understanding of the incarnation of Christ. There is a movement among some scripture scholars nowadays to recover the way in which the Church Fathers read the Old Testament in the light of the new. This method exists in an uneasy tension with the scholarship that gives the Old Testament its own meaning and place. Both approaches are helpful. Anything that will get Catholics to read the scriptures is helpful - we have a long ways to go before we catch up with our more biblically oriented Protestant brothers and sisters! AMEN
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