You are worth more than many sparrows
Introduction
Ephesians continues to praise God. In Christ we have received the truth as found in the gospel and we were given the Spirit. We are God’s own people, whose task is to give praise and glory to God.
Christ continues to denounce the Pharisees. In the contradictions of a life that wants to be faithful to the gospel, Christians have to go God’s ways, not their own. They entrust themselves into the hands of God who cares and to whom we are very precious.
1 Reading Ephesians 1:11-14
Brothers and sisters:
In Christ we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.
Responsorial Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Alleluia Psalm 33:22
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us;
who have put our hope in you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Luke 12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
“Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows.”
Commentary
The “leaven of the Pharisees,” hypocrisy: it’s very easy to write about; and there are wonderful things written about it! Shakespeare called the hypocrite “a goodly apple rotten at the heart,” and Thomas Hood, referring to jackdaws (“daws”) on the church spire, but referring really to the clergy, wrote, “A daw’s not reckoned a religious bird/ Because it keeps a-cawing from a steeple.” But perhaps the most thoughtful words were those of the 17th-century Frenchman, La Rochefoucauld: “Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.”
Blessing
Jesus assures us that God cares for us and that we are precious to him. Ask him to keep us in his love. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!