Daily Gospel for Saturday, 23 November 2013

Daily Gospel for Saturday, 23 November 2013

John 6:68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Messianic World English Bible)

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Saint of the Day:

SAINT CLEMENT I

POPE AND MARTYR

(† 100)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Let us devote our attention to the Apostolic Fathers, that is, to the first and second generations in the Church subsequent to the Apostles. And thus, we can see where the Church's journey begins in history.

St Clement, Bishop of Rome in the last years of the first century, was the third Successor of Peter, after Linus and Anacletus. The most important testimony concerning his life comes from St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons until 202. He attests that Clement "had seen the blessed Apostles", "had been conversant with them", and "might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes" (Adversus Haer. 3, 3, 3).

Later testimonies which date back to between the fourth and sixth centuries attribute to Clement the title of martyr.

The authority and prestige of this Bishop of Rome were such that various writings were attributed to him, but the only one that is certainly his is the Letter to the Corinthians. Eusebius of Caesarea, the great "archivist" of Christian beginnings, presents it in these terms: "There is extant an Epistle of this Clement which is acknowledged to be genuine and is of considerable length and of remarkable merit. He wrote it in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, when a sedition had arisen in the latter Church. We know that this Epistle also has been publicly used in a great many Churches both in former times and in our own" (Hist. Eccl. 3, 16).

An almost canonical character was attributed to this Letter. At the beginning of this text - written in Greek - Clement expressed his regret that "the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves" (1, 1) had prevented him from intervening sooner. These "calamitous events" can be identified with Domitian's persecution: therefore, the Letter must have been written just after the Emperor's death and at the end of the persecution, that is, immediately after the year 96.

Clement's intervention - we are still in the first century - was prompted by the serious problems besetting the Church in Corinth: the elders of the community, in fact, had been deposed by some young contestants. The sorrowful event was recalled once again by St Irenaeus who wrote: "In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome dispatched a most powerful Letter to the Corinthians exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the Apostles" (Adv. Haer. 3, 3, 3).

Thus, we could say that this Letter was a first exercise of the Roman primacy after St Peter's death. Clement's Letter touches on topics that were dear to St Paul, who had written two important Letters to the Corinthians, in particular the theological dialectic, perennially current, between the indicative of salvation and the imperative of moral commitment.

First of all came the joyful proclamation of saving grace. The Lord forewarns us and gives us his forgiveness, gives us his love and the grace to be Christians, his brothers and sisters.

It is a proclamation that fills our life with joy and gives certainty to our action: the Lord always forewarns us with his goodness and the Lord's goodness is always greater than all our sins.

However, we must commit ourselves in a way that is consistent with the gift received and respond to the proclamation of salvation with a generous and courageous journey of conversion.

In comparison with the Pauline model, the innovation added by Clement is to the doctrinal and practical sections, which constituted all the Pauline Letters, a "great prayer" that virtually concludes the Letter.

The Letter's immediate circumstances provided the Bishop of Rome with ample room for an intervention on the Church's identity and mission. If there were abuses in Corinth, Clement observed, the reason should be sought in the weakening of charity and of the other indispensable Christian virtues.

He therefore calls the faithful to humility and fraternal love, two truly constitutive virtues of being in the Church: "Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One", he warned, "let us do all those things which pertain to holiness" (30, 1).

In particular, the Bishop of Rome recalls that the Lord himself, "where and by whom he desires these things to be done, he himself has fixed by his own supreme will, in order that all things, being piously done according to his good pleasure, may be acceptable unto him.... For his own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministries devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen" (40, 1-5: it can be noted that here, in this early first-century Letter, the Greek word "laikós" appears for the first time in Christian literature, meaning "a member of the laos", that is, "of the People of God").

In this way, referring to the liturgy of ancient Israel, Clement revealed his ideal Church. She was assembled by "the one Spirit of grace poured out upon us" which breathes on the various members of the Body of Christ, where all, united without any divisions, are "members of one another" (46, 6-7).

The clear distinction between the "lay person" and the hierarchy in no way signifies opposition, but only this organic connection of a body, an organism with its different functions. The Church, in fact, is not a place of confusion and anarchy where one can do what one likes all the time: each one in this organism, with an articulated structure, exercises his ministry in accordance with the vocation he has received.

With regard to community leaders, Clement clearly explains the doctrine of Apostolic Succession. The norms that regulate it derive ultimately from God himself. The Father sent Jesus Christ, who in turn sent the Apostles. They then sent the first heads of communities and established that they would be succeeded by other worthy men.

Everything, therefore, was made "in an orderly way, according to the will of God" (42). With these words, these sentences, St Clement underlined that the Church's structure was sacramental and not political.

The action of God who comes to meet us in the liturgy precedes our decisions and our ideas. The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created; consequently, this sacramental structure does not only guarantee the common order but also this precedence of God's gift which we all need.

Finally, the "great prayer" confers a cosmic breath to the previous reasoning. Clement praises and thanks God for his marvellous providence of love that created the world and continues to save and sanctify it.

The prayer for rulers and governors acquires special importance. Subsequent to the New Testament texts, it is the oldest prayer extant for political institutions. Thus, in the period following their persecution, Christians, well aware that the persecutions would continue, never ceased to pray for the very authorities who had unjustly condemned them.

The reason is primarily Christological: it is necessary to pray for one's persecutors as Jesus did on the Cross.

But this prayer also contains a teaching that guides the attitude of Christians towards politics and the State down the centuries. In praying for the Authorities, Clement recognized the legitimacy of political institutions in the order established by God; at the same time, he expressed his concern that the Authorities would be docile to God, "devoutly in peace and meekness exercising the power given them by [God]" (61, 2).

Caesar is not everything. Another sovereignty emerges whose origins and essence are not of this world but of "the heavens above": it is that of Truth, which also claims a right to be heard by the State.

Thus, Clement's Letter addresses numerous themes of perennial timeliness. It is all the more meaningful since it represents, from the first century, the concern of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the other Churches.

In this same Spirit, let us make our own the invocations of the "great prayer" in which the Bishop of Rome makes himself the voice of the entire world: "Yes, O Lord, make your face to shine upon us for good in peace, that we may be shielded by your mighty hand... through the High Priest and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and majesty to you both now and from generation to generation, for evermore" (60-61).

BENEDICT XVI General audience (March 7,  2007)

© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

All-powerful and ever-living God,

we praise your power and glory revealed to us in the lives of all your saints.

Give us joy on this feast of Saint Clement,

the priest and martyr who bore witness with his blood

to the love he proclaimed and the gospel he preached.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

SAINT COLUMBAN

Abbot

(† 615(

Saint Columban was born in Ireland before the middle of the sixth century.

He was well trained in the classics and theology. After entering the monastic life, he went to France and founded many monasteries which he ruled with strict discipline. After being forced into exile, he went to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio.

He died in 615.

Christian Prayer : The Liturgy of the Hours; Daughters of St. Paul * St. Paul Editions * 1976

Lord,

you called Saint Columban to live the monastic life

and to preach the gospel with zeal.

May his prayers and his example

help to us to seek you above all things

and to work with all our hearts

for the spread of the faith.

Grant  this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Book of 2nd book of Maccabees 6: Abolition of Judaism.

1 a Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator* to force the Jews to abandon the laws of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God,

2 also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus,* and the one on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Host to Strangers, as the local inhabitants were wont to be.b

3 This was a harsh and utterly intolerable evil.

4 The Gentiles filled the temple with debauchery and revelry; they amused themselves with prostitutes and had intercourse with women even in the sacred courts. They also brought forbidden things into the temple,c

5 so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws.

6 No one could keep the sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit to being a Jew.

7 Moreover, at the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday the Jews, from bitter necessity, had to partake of the sacrifices, and when the festival of Dionysus* was celebrated, they were compelled to march in his procession, wearing wreaths of ivy.d

8 Following upon a vote of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to adopt the same measures, obliging the Jews to partake of the sacrifices

9 and putting to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster had come upon them.

10 Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall.e

11 Others, who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the seventh day in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned to death. In their respect for the holiness of that day, they refrained from defending themselves.f

God’s Purpose.

12 g Now I urge those who read this book not to be disheartened by these misfortunes, but to consider that these punishments were meant not for the ruin but for the correction of our nation.

13 It is, in fact, a sign of great kindness to punish the impious promptly instead of letting them go for long. (New American Bible)

Psalms 9: 1-2 I’m thanking you, God, from a full heart,

    I’m writing the book on your wonders.

I’m whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy;

    I’m singing your song, High God.

3-4 The day my enemies turned tail and ran,

    they stumbled on you and fell on their faces.

You took over and set everything right;

    when I needed you, you were there, taking charge.

6  Enemies disappear from the sidelines,

    their reputation trashed,

    their names erased from the halls of fame.

16  They have no excuse;

    the way God works is well-known.

The cunning machinery made by the wicked

    has maimed their own hands.

19 Up, God! Aren’t you fed up with their empty strutting?

    Expose these grand pretensions!(The Message)

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 20: All Intimacies Will Be with God

27-33 Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now—in the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.”

34-38 Jesus said, “Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men, but of the living. To him all are alive.”

39-40 Some of the religion scholars said, “Teacher, that’s a great answer!” For a while, anyway, no one dared put questions to him.(The Message)

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the Day:

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr

Against the heresies, IV, 5, 2

God of the living

Our Lord and Master, in the answer which He gave to the Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection and who therefore dishonor God and lower the credit of the law, both indicated a resurrection and revealed God. For he said: “You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob", and he added: "He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." By these arguments he unquestionably made it clear that he who spoke to Moses out of the bush and declared himself to be the God of our fathers is the God of the living. For who is the God of the living except he who is God and above whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel the prophet proclaimed in responding to Cyrus, king of the Persians...: “I do not worship idols made with hands, but the living God”... Again he said: “I will adore the Lord my God because he is the living God” (Dn 14,5.25).

He, then, who was adored by the prophets as the living God, he is the God of the living; and his Word is he who spoke to Moses in the bush and who also put the Sadducees to silence, who bestowed the gift of resurrection. He it was who, apart from the Law, revealed both these truths to those who are blind: that is, the resurrection and the true God. For if he is not the God of the dead, but of the living and yet was called the God of the fathers, who are asleep, then indubitably they live to God and have not perished since: “They are children of the resurrection.” But our Lord is himself the resurrection, as he himself declares: “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11,25). But the fathers are his children for it is said by the prophet: “The place of your fathers your sons shall have» (Ps 45[44],17).

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