Daily Gospel for Friday, 28 March 2014

Daily Gospel for Friday, 28 March 2014

"Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Saints of the Day:

SAINT GONTRAN

King

(545-592)

St. Gontran was the son of King Clotaire, and grandson of Clovis I. and St. Clotildis. Being the second son, whilst his brothers Charibert reigned at Paris, and Sigebert in Ostrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king of Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Chalons his capital.

When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories, under the conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. The crimes in which the barbarous manners of his nation involved him he effaced by tears of repentance.

The prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemns those who think that human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the Gospel, whereas nothing can render a government more flourishing.

He always treated the pastors of the Church with respect and veneration. He was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of His justice, to avert

His indignation which he believed he himself had provoked and drawn down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his officers and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, restrained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops; but no man was more ready to forgive offences against his own person.

With royal magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries.

This good king died in 592, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reigned thirty-one years and some months.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Book of Hosea 14: 2 Take words with you, and return to Yahweh.

    Tell him, “Forgive all our sins,

    and accept that which is good:

    so we offer our lips like bulls.

3 Assyria can’t save us.

    We won’t ride on horses;

    neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’

    for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

4 “I will heal their waywardness.

    I will love them freely;

    for my anger is turned away from him.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel.

    He will blossom like the lily,

    and send down his roots like Lebanon.

6 His branches will spread,

    and his beauty will be like the olive tree,

    and his fragrance like Lebanon.

7 Men will dwell in his shade.

    They will revive like the grain,

    and blossom like the vine.

    Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?

    I answer, and will take care of him.

    I am like a green cypress tree;

    from me your fruit is found.”

9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things?

    Who is prudent, that he may know them?

    For the ways of Yahweh are right,

    and the righteous walk in them;

    But the rebellious stumble in them.

Psalm 81:6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden.

    His hands were freed from the basket.

7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you.

    I answered you in the secret place of thunder.

    I tested you at the waters of Meribah.”

Selah.

8 “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you,

    Israel, if you would listen to me!

9 There shall be no strange god in you,

    neither shall you worship any foreign god.

10 I am Yahweh, 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 didn’t listen to my voice.

    Israel desired none of me.

14 I would soon subdue their enemies,

    and turn my hand against their adversaries.

17 But Israel I will feed with the finest wheat,

I will satisfy them with honey from the rock.”

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12: 28 One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?”

29 Jesus answered, “The greatest is, ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one: 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’[a] This is the first commandment. 31 The second is like this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no other commandment greater than these.”

32 The scribe said to him, “Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he, 33 and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from God’s Kingdom.”

No one dared ask him any question after that.

Footnotes:

a. Mark 12:30 Deuteronomy 6:4-5

b. Mark 12:31 Leviticus 19:18

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Commentary of the Day:

Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church

Sermons for Sundays and feast days

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart"

“You shall love the Lord your God.” 'Your' God is what is said and this is a reason for loving him even more, for we love what is our own more than what is not ours. It is certainly the case that the Lord your God is worthy of being loved. He became your servant so that you might belong to him and not be ashamed of serving him... Your God became your servant for thirty whole years because of your sins, to snatch you away from slavery to the devil. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God. He who made you became your servant on your account; he has been wholly given to you that you might be given to yourself. When you were miserable he restored your happiness, giving himself to you to bring you back to yourself.

And so you shall love the Lord your God “with all your heart”. 'All': you may not keep any part of yourself for yourself. He desires an offering of the whole of yourself. He wholly bought you with all of himself that he alone might possess you, the whole of you. Therefore you will love the Lord your God with all your heart. Don't, like Ananias and Sapphira, keep part of yourself for yourself for then you will perish as they did (Acts 5,1ff.). Love wholly, then, not in part. For God has no parts but exists wholly in every part. He wants no share in your being who is wholly in his own Being. If you keep back a part of yourself then you belong to yourself and not to him.

Do you want to possess everything, then? Give him what you are and he will give you what he is. You will have nothing more of yourself, but you will have all of him together with all yourself.

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