Daily Gospel for Saturday, 8 March 2014

Daily Gospel for Saturday, 8 March 2014

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

Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint(s) of the day:

SAINT JOHN OF GOD

Religious

(1495-1550)

Nothing in John's early life foreshadowed his future sanctity. He ran away as a boy from his home in Portugal, tended sheep and cattle in Spain, and served as a soldier against the French, and afterwards against the Turks.

When about forty years of age, feeling remorse for his wild life, he resolved to devote himself to the ransom of the Christian slaves in Africa, and went thither with the family of an exiled noble, which he maintained by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices.

At length the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one mad. There he employed himself in ministering to the sick.

On leaving he began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by begging. One night St. John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he knelt to kiss them, and started with awe: the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails bright with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes to look, and heard the words, "John, to Me thou doest all that thou doest to the poor in My name: I reach forth My hand for the alms thou givest; Me dost thou clothe, Mine are the feet thou dost wash." And then the gracious vision disappeared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion and consolation.

The bishop became the Saint's patron, and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amidst the flames until he had rescued all his poor.

After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed. He plunged into the river Xenil to save a drowning boy, and died, 1550, of an illness brought on by the attempt, at the age of fifty-five.

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

Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 58: 9 Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer;

    you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away from among you the yoke,

    finger pointing,

    and speaking wickedly;

10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry,

    and satisfy the afflicted soul:

then your light will rise in darkness,

    and your obscurity will be as the noonday;

11 and Yahweh will guide you continually,

    and satisfy your soul in dry places,

    and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

    and like a spring of water,

    whose waters don’t fail.

12 Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places;

    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach,

    Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,

    from doing your pleasure on my holy day;

and call the Sabbath a delight,

    and the holy of Yahweh honorable;

    and shall honor it,

    not doing your own ways,

    nor finding your own pleasure,

    nor speaking your own words:

14 then you shall delight yourself in Yahweh;

    and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth;

    and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:”

    for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.

Psalm 86: A Prayer by David.

1 Hear, Yahweh, and answer me,

    for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my soul, for I am godly.

    You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.

3 Be merciful to me, Lord,

    for I call to you all day long.

4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant,

    for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive;

    abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.

6 Hear, Yahweh, my prayer.

    Listen to the voice of my petitions.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5: 27 After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”

28 He left everything, and rose up and followed him. 29 Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. 30 Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the Day:

Julian of Norwich (1342-after 1416), recluse

Revelations of divine love, ch. 51-52 (trans. copyright Classics of Western spirituality)

"I have come to call [sinners] to repentance"

God showed me a lord sitting in state, in rest and peace. The lord sends his servant  to a certain place to do  his will. Not only does the servant go but he dashes off and runs at great speed, loving to do his lord's will. And soon he falls into a dell and is greatly injured... And so in this servant God showed me the blindness and the hurt of Adam's falling; and in the servant there was shown the wisdom and the goodness of God's Son. And in the lord there was shown the compassion and the pity for Adam's woe; and in the lord there was shown the great nobility and the endless honour that man has come to, by the power of the Passion and the death of God's beloved Son. And therefore he greatly rejoices in his falling, for the raising on high and the fulness of bliss which mankind has come to, exceeding what we should have if he had not fallen...

And so we have matter for mourning, because our sin is the cause of Christ's pains, and we have constantly matter for joy, because endless love made him suffer... And if we through our blindness and our wretchedness at any time fall, then let us quickly rise, knowing the sweet touching of grace, and willingly amend ourselves according to the teaching of Holy Church, as may fit the grievousness of the sin, and go on our way with God in love, and neither on the one side fall too low, inclining to despair, nor on the other side be too reckless, as though we did not care; but let us meekly recognize our weakness, knowing that we cannot stand for the twinkling of an eye except with the protection of grace...

So does our good Lord want us willingly to accuse ourselves, and to see truly and know our falling, and all the harms which come from it, seeing and knowing that we can never repair it; and also we willingly and truly see and know the everlasting love which he has for us, and his plentiful mercy. And so by grace to see and know both together is the meek self-accusation which our good Lord asks from us and is his work in our soul.

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