Daily Gospel for Friday, 14 February 2014

Daily Gospel for Friday, 14 February 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 Fifth Week in Ordinary Time  

Saint of the Day:

Saint. Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop

Co-Patrons of Europe

Memorial

(Feast in Europe)

St. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica (Greece).

Cyril was born about 826 and died at Rome in 869.

Methodius was born about 815. He was made a bishop and spent many years preaching the gospel in Hungary, despite resistance and hostility. He died in Velehrad (Czech Republic) in 885.

With papal approval they preached the gospel in Moravia using their own translations of the Scriptures and the liturgy in the local language. These translations into Slavonic were based on an alphabet they invented, now called Cyrillic.

Cyril and Methodius are honoured as apostles of the Slavic peoples.

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

1 Kings 11:29 About that time, when Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new garment. The two of them were alone in the open country 30 when Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 He then said to Jeroboam: Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes. 32 One tribe will remain his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Psalm 81:10 I am the Lord your God,

    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

    Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;

    Israel would not submit to me.

12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

    to follow their own counsels.

13 O that my people would listen to me,

    that Israel would walk in my ways!

14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,

    and turn my hand against their foes.

15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,

    and their doom would last forever.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7: Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus[a] ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Footnotes:

a. Mark 7:36 Gk he

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day:

Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013

Speech to seminarians 17/02/07 (trans. © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

« Oh that today you would hear his voice! » (Ps 95[94],7)

How can we distinguish God's voice from among the thousands of voices we hear each day in our world. I would say:  God speaks with us in many different ways. He speaks through others, through friends, parents, pastors, priests. Here, the priests to whom you are entrusted, who are guiding you. He speaks by means of the events in our life, in which we are able to discern God's touch; he speaks also through nature, creation, and he speaks, naturally and above all, through his Word, in Sacred Scripture, read in the communion of the Church and read personally in conversation with God.

It is important to read Sacred Scripture in a very personal way, and really, as St Paul says, not as a human word or a document from the past as we read Homer or Virgil, but as God's Word which is ever timely and speaks to me. It is important to learn to understand in a historical text, a text from the past, the living Word of God, that is, to enter into prayer and thus read Sacred Scripture as a conversation with God. St Augustine often says in his homilies:  I knocked on various occasions at the door of this Word until I could perceive what God himself was saying to me. It is of paramount importance to combine this very personal reading, this personal talk with God in which I search for what the Lord is saying to me, and in addition to this personal reading, reading it in the community is very important because the living subject of Sacred Scripture is the People of God, it is the Church.

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