Readings:
Ezekiel 22-23
Titus 1

Ezekiel 22-23

The sins listed here against Jerusalem are as bad or worse than what Sodom and Gomorrah were up to before they were completely destroyed. Incest, rape and idolatry, among other things, you name it and the people of Jerusalem were doing it. Sounds like an absolutely horrible place and that’s just the first few verses.

Because of these sins and more, and because they’ve ignored all the warnings given by God in Sinai through Moses, and then through all the prophets, they’ll be destroyed by fire.

The next chapter contains a prophetic parable that’s often referred to as the “two adulterous sisters.” Here God recounts the history of Israel from the exodus to the present day, and its through the lens of two sisters married to the same man, and they commit endless amounts of adulatory in their marriage and defile their marriage covenant like the children of Abraham have done. This chapter is notable for strong words and somewhat descriptive and disgusting language describing the deeds the nation of Israel through the allegory of these sisters.

Titus 1

One of the shortest by Saint Paul, the letter to Titus is meant to strengthen and encourage his younger protégé in his work on the island of Crete. Titus was mentioned several times in our last New Testament book, and he is the same person who Paul chose to hand deliver his letters to the Corinthians.

Titus is on Crete to help establish communities of believers who’ve been recently evangelized but don’t have established churches and clergy. Paul knows this can be a difficult task as he’s done it many times himself, but he’s encouraging several of the men who received his letters in similar circumstances including Titus and Timothy.

The letter opens with the standard Pauline greeting and then dives right into the heart of the matter. He encourages his mission to appoint and ordain priests to lead these new communities, and he lays out some guidelines. He says they should be husbands to one wife. On its face this seems to mean not engaging in polygamy, but that is already forbidden among Christians so it must be something else. Paul allowed young widows and widowers to remarry, not considering this to violate the marriage to their first spouse, but for those called to priesthood it was more stringent that only one wife in your lifetime was permitted.

Some take this sentence to mean that a man must be married to be ordained, and then by extension they turn it into an anti catholic position, but if that was the case it would’ve precluded Paul himself (not to mention Our Lord) so this is clearly not what’s being said.

Part of his list of qualifications is the ability to refute unsound doctrine, and then he mentions the “circumcision party,” so it seems like the judaizers that Paul has battled since he began his ministry are also causing problems in Crete for Titus.

Paul quotes a pagan philosopher from Crete who said the Cretans have bad morals and poor conduct, and Paul’s opinion seems to agree. He tells Titus to rebuke any bad conduct so they may behave as Christians should.

One who is learned in Sacred Scripture accepts the truth wherever he finds it. This is why Paul, on several occasions, refers to the sayings of pagans. It does not follow that all their teaching is approved, but what is good is drawn out and retained. For truth comes from the Holy Spirit, no matter who speaks it.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Ezekiel 24-25
Titus 2