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Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Letter of St. James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
August 29, 2021

We begin today our readings from the Letter of St. James. Like the other letters from the New Testament, we have read: 1 Peter, 1 John, Romans, and most recently the “Letter to the Ephesians,” the Letter of St James breathes the life of its community. We might better say communities. Except for Paul’s letter to the Romans, these are circular letters addressed to Christians in several cities. Individual churches, we would now say parishes, were joined to other parishes as a loose confederation based on loyalty to the founder. We have often been unsure if these letters were written by the founder himself, but if written by a disciple successor, they would have been in his tradition and spirit.

The letter of James is attributed to James, the blood relation of Jesus, who was considered the first Bishop of Jerusalem and the leader of the Christians most committed to maintaining continuity with Judaism. We note however that he was instrumental in freeing gentile Christians from the most burdensome aspects of the law, most importantly circumcision, and had an experience of the risen Lord. He understood the freedom of the Spirit, but he also wrote the most Jewish writing in the New Testament. We may assume it was written to those parishes which maintained some Jewish customs and many Jewish attitudes. The other letters we have read desired to educate Christians born Gentile in the basics of Judaism in order to understand Christianity. This is not an issue here. This is a Jew instructing other Jews in who Jesus, another Jew, was to them.

The Exhortation to the Apostles
James Tissot, 1886-1892, Brooklyn Museum

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? 
You have the words of eternal life. 
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
(John 6:67-69)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ephesians 5:2a, 25-32
August 22, 2021

We read today the most famous or perhaps most infamous section of the Letter to the Ephesians. It examines household relations and contains the line: “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands”. It is easy to dismiss this as an artifact of a long-gone civilization, but we do so at our peril.