2nd Reading, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32

The New Chosen People
[13] Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry [14] in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. [15] For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

The Conversion of the Jews (Continuation)

[29] For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. [30] Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, [31] so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they may also receive mercy. [32] For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.
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Commentary:

25-32. We all yearn for the fulfillment of these words--threatening yet consoling-- which Christ addressed to the scribes and Pharisees: "For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"' (Mt 23:39). "Together with the prophets and the Apostle, the Church awaits the day, known to God alone, when all peoples will call on God with one voice and 'serve him with one accord' (Zeph 3:9)" (Vatican II, "Nostra Aetate", 4). The conversion of the Jews is a secret--a mystery, the text says (v. 25)--hidden in the future, which will come about when the Incarnation of the Word achieves its ultimate purpose.

This conversion will follow on that of the Gentiles, which will be as it were a prelude to it. Jesus has foretold that "Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Lk 21:24; cf. note on same), which in some way suggests that the Jews will be converted at the end of time.

However, when the Church in its preaching touches on the main signs of the end of the world, it only refers to the proclamation of the Gospel throughout the world, to apostasy and to the Antichrist, but it has nothing to say about the conversion of the Jews (cf. "St Pius V Catechism", I, 8, 7). What the Church does do, and what we should do, is to pray the Lord to listen to its prayers "that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption" ("Roman Missal", Good Friday Liturgy, Prayer of the Faithful).

"The same thing is happening, St Paul explains, now that the Gospel is being preached. The people of Israel in general are not accepting it and are not becoming part of the Church; only a small number of Jews have believed, and these are the "remnant.' of Israel, chosen by God so that in them the promises might be kept. The conversion of Paul himself is an example and an earnest of this return of the people of Israel to their God, in line with the invitation that Hosea addressed to them: "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity" (Hos 14:2).

Throughout the history of the Church lapses of this type have occurred, with a consequent breakdown in morality. Whenever this happens, those Christians who stay true to the faith may, like Elijah, feel inclined to despair; but they should react with a realistic and vigilant optimism and not indulge in useless lamentation. In the presence of God, they should reflect on the fact that God actually wants to use them and their holy lives to turn the situation around: "A secret, an open secret: these world crises are sanctity crises. God wants a handful of men 'of his own' in every human activity. And then...'"pax Christi in regno Christi"--the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ" (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 301).

29. God never goes back on anything he promises; therefore he continues to call the Jews to enter the chosen people. He does not take account of their dis- obedience or their sins: he will love them with an everlasting love, as he promised the patriarchs and in line with the merits accruing to them for their fidelity (cf. Rom 9:4-5). It is this very immutability of God's love that makes it possible for all Israel" (v. 26) to be saved. God's calling, which is eternal, cannot cease; but we for our part can reject his call. The immutability of God's plan is reassuring to us: it means that even if we abandon him at any point, we can always return to our earlier fidelity: he is still there, waiting for us.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.