Daily Gospel for Friday, 31 January 2014
“Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words
of real life, eternal life.”(John 6:68, The Message).
Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day:
SAINT JOHN BOSCO
Priest
(1815-1888)
Born in the diocese of Turin in 1815, and brought up in poverty,
John Bosco devoted his life to the education of working youth.
He founded religious congregations -the Salesian Order, and the
Congregation of the Helpers of Mary -to carry on his ideals.
He fell asleep in the Lord on January 30, 1888 at the age of
seventy-two.
SAINT MARCELLA
Widow
(325-410)
St. Marcella, whom St. Jerome called the glory of the Roman
women, became a widow in the seventh month after her marriage. Having
determined to consecrate the remainder of her days to the service of God, she
rejected the hand of Cerealis, the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar, and resolved
to imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and
flesh-meat, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the
churches, and never spoke with any man alone. Her example was followed by many
who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time filled
with monasteries.
When the Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410, our Saint
suffered severely at the hands of the barbarian, who cruelly scourged her in
order to make her reveal the treasures which she had long before distributed in
charity. She trembled only, however, for the innocence of her dear spiritual
daughter, Principia, and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged
with many tears that they would offer no insult to that pure virgin. God moved
them to compassion, and they conducted our Saint and her pupil to the Church of
St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary, with that of St.
Peter.
St. Marcella, who survived this but a short time, closed her
eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August,
410.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
2 Samuel 11: David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to
battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged
the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch
and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the
roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to
inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam,
the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she
came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her
period.) Then she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent
and told David, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And
Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and
the people fared, and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go
down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house,
and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the
entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go
down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,”
David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go
down to your house?”
13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made
him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants
of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
David Has Uriah Killed
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by
the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of
the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck
down and die.” 16 As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the
place where he knew there were valiant warriors. 17 The men of the city came
out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people
fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.
Psalm 51: 3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever
before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil
in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you
pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my
mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;[a]
therefore teach me
wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 51:6 Meaning of Heb uncertain
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and
right[a] spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your
holy spirit from me.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 51:10 Or steadfast
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4: The
Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would
scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the
seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of
itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But
when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest
has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when
sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it
is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth
large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
The Use of Parables
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they
were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he
explained everything in private to his disciples.
Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Peter Chrysologus (c.406-450), Bishop of Ravenna, Doctor
of the Church
Sermon 98 ; CCL 24A, 602 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
"It puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky
can dwell in its shade"
The kingdom of heaven, says the gospel, is like a mustard
seed... Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden
of the Virgin's womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches
stretch across the world... Christ is the kingdom, because all the glory of his
kingdom is within him. Christ is a man, because all humanity is restored in
him. Christ is a mustard seed, because the infinitude of divine greatness is
accommodated to the littleness of flesh and blood.
Do we need further examples? Christ became all things in order
to restore all of us in himself. The man Christ received the mustard seed which
represents the kingdom of God...; though
as God he had always possessed it He sowed it in his garden.
The Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by
the plough of the gospel, fenced in by stakes of doctrine and discipline,
cleared of every harmful weed by the labor of the apostles, fragrant and lovely
with perennial flowers: virgins' lilies and martyrs' roses, set amid the
pleasant verdure of all who bear witness to Christ and the tender plants of all
who have faith in him.
Such then is the mustard seed which Christ sowed in his garden.
When he promised a kingdom to the partriarchs the seed took root in them; with
the prophets it sprang up, with the apostles it grew talL in the Church it
became a great tree putting forth innumerable branches laden with gifts. And
now you too must take the wings of the psalmist's dove (Ps 68[67],14)... and
fly to rest for ever among those sturdy, fruitful branches. No snares are set
to trap you there (Ps 91[90],3); fly off, then, with confidence and dwell
securely in its shelter.
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment