In this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word, we focus on a total of five details that come from the three readings for this upcoming 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A. The first detail comes from the first reading, which is taken from 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12. The relevant topic there is the Divinity of Jesus. The two details that come from the second reading, taken from Romans 8:28-30, relate to the problem of evil and the mystery of predestination. The problem of evil is also tied to one of the two details that we highlight in the Gospel reading, taken from Matthew 13:44-46. Like last week’s Gospel, the other detail relates to the topic of Hell.
Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/073023.cfm
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The Sunday Catholic Word
Episode 36
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
Hey everyone,
Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.
I’m Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.
In this episode, we’re going to focus on a total of five details that come from the three readings for this upcoming 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A. One comes from the first reading, which is taken from 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12. The relevant topic there is the Divinity of Jesus. The two details that come from the second reading, taken from Romans 8:28-30, relate to the problem of evil and the mystery of predestination. The problem of evil is also tied to one of the two details that we’re going to highlight in the Gospel reading, taken from Matthew 13:44-46. Like last week’s Gospel, the other detail relates to the topic of Hell.
Let’s start with the detail from the first reading, again, taken from 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12. The reading recounts how God appears to Solomon in a dream and invites Solomon to request something from Him. Solomon asks for wisdom and understanding and God grants them to him. The detail that I want to briefly highlight is the part of God’s response where He says, “I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.”
Notice the promise that there would be no one to equal Solomon in His wisdom. The boundaries that govern the “no one to equal you” are among human beings. So, among human beings, no one would equal Solomon’s wisdom.
Why is this significant? Well, consider what Jesus says in Matthew 12:42: “The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” If no human being would ever equal Solomon in his wisdom (something that God promised), and Jesus is saying that He is greater than Solomon, then either Jesus is calling God a liar (inasmuch as He is a human being and thinks He’s greater than Solomon) or He is claiming to be something greater than a human being, which would be consistent with what God promised. It’s unreasonable to think that Jesus is calling God the Father a liar. Therefore, we can conclude that He is claiming to be something greater than a human being.
Now, this doesn’t give us a clear example that Jesus understands Himself to be divine, since He could be greater than a human being by being an angel. But it at least points us in the right direction, giving us a hint to Jesus’ self-understanding to be divine.
The next two details that we’re going to focus on come from the second reading, taken from Romans 8:28-30. Here’s what Paul writes:
We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified.
The first detail to highlight is Paul’s statement, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God.” This provides us with at least a part of the Christian response to the problem of evil. Whatever evil God permits to befall a Christian in this life will be rectified in the end. God permits evil only insofar as He intends to order it to a greater good.
The second detail is the whole notion of predestination. As Catholics, we affirm this biblical teaching 100%. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches as much:
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination,” he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place [Acts 4:28-28].” For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.
There are two things to point out here. First, notice the Catechism affirms that man’s free response to God’s grace is included within this predestined plan. The Church does not believe that man’s free will is excluded from the equation when it comes to God’s grace saving us. It is important to note, however, that even man’s response to grace is a grace in itself that from all eternity is ordained to be given to us by God, independent of any foreseen merits on our part.
Second, notice the Catechism states that God “permitted” the acts that lead to Jesus’ death. The Catechism here is avoiding Calvin’s view that within God’s predestined plan He positively wills people to sin. There is a difference between God positively moving man to sin and permitting man to sin. As Catholics, we deny the former and affirm the latter.
Now, the topic of predestination is vast and wide, and we don’t have time to delve into it here. But suffice to say that this text from St. Paul provides a great opportunity to reflect on it.
Let’s now turn to the Gospel reading, again, taken from Matthew 13:44-52. Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to several different things: a treasure buried in a field, a merchant searching for a fine pearl, and a net thrown into the sea that collects fish of every kind. It’s the latter image that I want to focus on here. Jesus says,
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
The first detail to highlight is the “fish of every kind” existing in the net. Like last week’s Gospel, this touches on the problem of evil—God permitting the bad to exist alongside the good. But Jesus’ answer, at least here in this teaching, is that such evil eventually will be weeded out and separated from the good. Although evil is tragic, it is not ultimately tragic, for God will get rid of it in the end.
It’s this separation that serves as our second detail worthy of highlight. Notice Jesus says, “Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” Again, like in last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus reveals that the wicked will be alongside the righteous for a time, and eventually will be separated from them and put into a place of torment.
Like our reasoning in last week’s Gospel, this torment doesn’t seem to be temporary. The parable would be unintelligible if Jesus intended for the wicked eventually to be reunited with the righteous. Bad fish aren’t eventually put back with the good ones. Nor do the bad fish become good. They are permanently bad. That’s why they’re thrown out. The implication of the separation, therefore, is that the wicked are intended to be alongside the righteous only for this age.
Therefore, after this age the wicked are permanently separated. And given this is a parable about the kingdom of heaven, their permanent exclusion is from the kingdom of heaven. Such permanent exclusion from the kingdom of heaven is what we call Hell. Hell, therefore, is a reality.
Conclusion
Well, that does it for this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. The readings for this upcoming 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A are not wanting when it comes to apologetical details. Several topics come to the fore:
- The Divinity of Jesus
- The mystery of predestination,
- The problem of evil and the Christian response to it, and
- The reality of Hell.
I hope that what I shared with you will help you in your own apologetical conversations.
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I hope you have a blessed 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time. God Bless!