Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Judges 2:11-19; Matthew 19:16-22)
God called Israel to be a people
“peculiarly His own” as one translation of Scripture puts it. He gave them the Covenant guaranteeing them land
and protection in exchange for their adherence to the Law. In this way Israel would attract the world to
Himself.
The first reading today relates how badly
Israel failed to fulfill the Covenant.
The nation continually abandoned God and found itself overwhelmed by enemies. In His mercy, God sent judges to save the
people from extinction, but their lessons were short-lived. The reading tells how Israel reformed for a
while, but once a judge died, it returned to its evil ways. Eventually, the nation will have kings who
will also bring prosperity for a time but eventually fail to reform the people.
God will promise a Messiah to establish the
requisite righteousness. Jesus fulfills this prophecy over a thousand years
after the period of the judges. We see his wisdom in the gospel. He relates general principles to answer the
young man’s question about eternal life.
He also discerns the man’s personal situation and gives him wise advice. Because the man places too much value on wealth,
Jesus asks him to disinvest to become his disciple. We have to ask Jesus to show us what we
individually have to do to gain eternal life.
