Daily Gospel for Thursday,
3 April 2014
"Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal
life." John 6:68
Thursday of the Fourth Week
of Lent
Saints of the Day:
SAINT RICHARD OF CHICHESTER
Bishop
(1197-1253)
Richard was born, 1197, in the little town of Wyche, eight miles from
Worcester, England. He and his elder brother were left orphans when young, and
Richard gave up the studies which he loved, to farm his brother's impoverished
estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard's successful care, proposed to
make over to him all his lands; but he refused both the estate and the offer of
a brilliant marriage, to study for the priesthood at Oxford.
In 1235 he was appointed, for his learning and piety, chancellor of that
University, and afterwards, by St. Edmund of Canterbury, chancellor of his
diocese. He stood by that Saint in his long contest with the king, and
accompanied him into exile.
After St. Edmund's death Richard returned to England to toil as a simple
curate, but was soon elected Bishop of Chichester in preference to the
worthless nominee of Henry III. The king in revenge refused to recognize the
election, and seized the revenues of the see. Thus Richard found himself
fighting the same 1 battle in which St. Edmund had died. He went to Lyons, was
there consecrated by Innocent IV. in 1245, and returning to England, in spite
of his poverty and the king's hostility, exercised fully his episcopal rights,
and thoroughly reformed his see.
After two years his revenues were restored. Young and old loved St.
Richard. He gave all he had, and worked miracles, to feed the poor and heal the
sick; but when the rights or purity of the Church were concerned he was
inexorable.
A priest of noble blood polluted his office by sin; Richard deprived him
of his benefice, and refused the king's petition in his favor. On the other
hand, when a knight violently put a priest in prison, Richard compelled the
knight to walk round the priest's church with the same log of wood on his neck
to which he had chained the priest; and when the burgesses of Lewes tore a
criminal from the church and hanged him, Richard made them dig up the body from
its unconsecrated grave, and bear it back to the sanctuary they had violated.
Richard died in 1253, while preaching, at the Pope's command, a crusade
against the Saracens.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Exodus 32:7 Yahweh spoke
to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of
Egypt, have corrupted themselves! 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the
way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have
worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods,
Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9 Yahweh said to Moses,
“I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now
therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I
may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Moses begged Yahweh
his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people,
that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a
mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘He brought them out
for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface
of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against
your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you
swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring[a] as
the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to
your offspring,[b] and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 Yahweh repented of
the evil which he said he would do to his people.
Footnotes:
a. Exodus 32:13 or, seed
b. Exodus 32:13 or, seed
Psalm 106:19 They made a
calf in Horeb,
and worshiped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged
their glory
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot God,
their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said
that he would destroy them,
had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him
in the breach,
to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t
destroy them.
Holy Gospel of Jesus
Christ according to Saint John 5:31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is
not valid. 32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony
which he testifies about me is true. 33 You have sent to John, and he has
testified to the truth. 34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man.
However, I say these things that you may be saved. 35 He was the burning and
shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But
the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which
the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me,
that the Father has sent me. 37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified
about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. 38
You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he
sent.
39 “You search the
Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are
they which testify about me. 40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have
life. 41 I don’t receive glory from men. 42 But I know you, that you don’t have
God’s love in yourselves. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t
receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can
you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory
that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I
will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on
whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe
me; for he wrote about me. 47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will
you believe my words?”
Thursday of the Fourth
Week of Lent
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Sermons on the Song of Songs, no.20, § 2 (trans. ©Classics of Western
spirituality)
"I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me"
Above all, O good Jesus, I love you for the chalice you drained for our
redemption... It is this that most sweetly allures our love, most justly exacts
it, most closely binds it and makes it the most vehement. For on that day our
Savior underwent immense labor and the Creator himself did not have as much
trouble in forming the entire universe. Of that mighty work we read: "He
spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created." Whereas, in
order to redeem us, the Savior had to affirm his words before those who
contradicted him, defend his actions against a hostile surveillance, undergo
torment before his mockers and death in the midst of reproaches. He loved us
even to this point.
Remember, too, that in this he was not loving anybody in return but of
himself. For: "who has given him anything that he should be repaid?” (Rm
11,35). Rather, as Saint John the Evangelist says: “Not that we have loved God
but that he has first loved us" (1Jn 4,10). To sum up, he loved us even
before we existed, and, what is more, loved us when we resisted him, as St.
Paul testifies: "While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son" (Rm 5,10). For if he had not loved us when we were
His enemies, he would have had no friends and if he had not loved those who did
not as yet exist, he would never have had anyone to love at all.
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