Daily Gospel for Saturday, 19 July 2014

Daily Gospel for Saturday, 19 July 2014
"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)
Saturday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the Day:
Servant of God Francis Garcés and Companions
Martyrs
(c. 1781)
A contemporary of the American Revolution and of Blessed Junipero Serra, Francisco Garcés was born in 1738 in Spain, where he joined the Franciscans.
After ordination in 1763, he was sent to Mexico. Five years later he was assigned to San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, one of several missions the Jesuits had founded in Arizona and New Mexico before being expelled in 1767 from all territories controlled by the Catholic king of Spain. In Arizona, Francisco worked among the Papago, Yuma, Pima and Apache Native Americans. His missionary travels took him to the Grand Canyon and to California.
Friar Francisco Palou, a contemporary, writes that Father Garcés was greatly loved by the indigenous peoples, among whom he lived unharmed for a long time. They regularly gave him food and referred to him as "Viva Jesus," which was the greeting he taught them to use.
For the sake of their indigenous converts, the Spanish missionaries wanted to organize settlements away from the Spanish soldiers and colonists. But the commandant in Mexico insisted that two new missions on the Colorado River, Misión San Pedro y San Pablo and Misión La Purísima Concepción, be mixed settlements.
A revolt among the Yumas against the Spanish left Friars Juan Diaz and Matias Moreno dead at Misión San Pedro y San Pablo. Friars Francisco Garcés and Juan Barreneche were killed at Misión La Purísima Concepción (the site of Fort Yuma).
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/
Saint Arsenius
Feastday: July 19
Death: 450
Confessor and hermit on the Nile. Arsenius, who was born in Rome in 354, was the tutor of the children of Emperors Theodosius I the Great, Arcadius, and Honorius. At that time, Arsenius was a Roman deacon recommended for the office by Pope St. Damasus. lie served at Theodosius' court in Constantinople for about ten years and then became a monk in Alexandria, Egypt. Inheriting a fortune from a relative, Arsenius studied with St. John the Dwarf and became a hermit in the desert of Egypt. In 434, he left Skete and went to the rock of Troe, near Memphis, Egypt, and to the island of Canopus near Alexandria. He died at Troe. Arsenius is sometimes called "the Roman" or "the Deacon."
Saturday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Micah 2: God Has Had Enough
1-5 Doom to those who plot evil,
    who go to bed dreaming up crimes!
As soon as it’s morning,
    they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned.
They covet fields and grab them,
    find homes and take them.
They bully the neighbor and his family,
    see people only for what they can get out of them.
God has had enough. He says,
    “I have some plans of my own:
Disaster because of this interbreeding evil!
    Your necks are on the line.
You’re not walking away from this.
    It’s doomsday for you.
Mocking ballads will be sung of you,
    and you yourselves will sing the blues:
‘Our lives are ruined,
    our homes and lands auctioned off.
They take everything, leave us nothing!
    All is sold to the highest bidder.’”
And there’ll be no one to stand up for you,
    no one to speak for you before God and his jury.
Psalm 10:1-2 God, are you avoiding me?
    Where are you when I need you?
Full of hot air, the wicked
    are hot on the trail of the poor.
Trip them up, tangle them up
    in their fine-tuned plots.
3-4 The wicked are windbags,
    the swindlers have foul breath.
The wicked snub God,
    their noses stuck high in the air.
Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:
    “Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”
7-8 They carry a mouthful of hexes,
    their tongues spit venom like adders.
They hide behind ordinary people,
    then pounce on their victims.
14 But you know all about it—
    the contempt, the abuse.
I dare to believe that the luckless
    will get lucky someday in you.
You won’t let them down:
    orphans won’t be orphans forever.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12:11-14 He replied, “Is there a person here who, finding one of your lambs fallen into a ravine, wouldn’t, even though it was a Sabbath, pull it out? Surely kindness to people is as legal as kindness to animals!” Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out and it was healed. The Pharisees walked out furious, sputtering about how they were going to ruin Jesus.
In Charge of Everything
15-21 Jesus, knowing they were out to get him, moved on. A lot of people followed him, and he healed them all. He also cautioned them to keep it quiet, following guidelines set down by Isaiah:
Look well at my handpicked servant;
    I love him so much, take such delight in him.
I’ve placed my Spirit on him;
    he’ll decree justice to the nations.
But he won’t yell, won’t raise his voice;
    there’ll be no commotion in the streets.
He won’t walk over anyone’s feelings,
    won’t push you into a corner.
Before you know it, his justice will triumph;
    the mere sound of his name will signal hope, even
    among far-off unbelievers.
Saturday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Hippolytus of Rome (?-c.235), priest and martyr 
The Refutation of all heresies, 10, 33-34
"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen"
This is our faith…: God sent his Word (Jn 1,1) to reveal himself in person before men’s eyes that the world, when it saw him, might be saved… We know he became man, of the same clay as ourselves. If it had been otherwise it would have been futile for him to command us to imitate him as our lord (Jn 13,14-34). If this man were of a different nature, how could he ask me to do as he did, I who am weak by nature? Where, then, would be his goodness, his justice?
To make us thoroughly understand that he is no different from us he desired to bear fatigue and know hunger (Jn 4,6); he did not refuse thirst or to find rest in sleep. He did not refuse suffering, he became subject to death and openly manifested his resurrection. In all these things he offered his own humanity as a firstfruits so that you, in your own suffering, might not lose courage but, recognising that you yourself are man, might also wait for what the Father has given to him…
Thanks to your knowledge of the true God you will have an immortal and imperishable body like the soul itself. You will receive the Kingdom of heaven as your inheritance because you acknowledged the King of heaven while you lived on earth. You will live in the presence of God, “co-heir with Christ” (Rm 8,17). You will no longer be dominated by desires, suffering and sickness because you have become divine in nature… “Christ is God above all” (cf Rm 9,5)… and have given the perfection of the new man to the old man (Col 3,9). He called it his image from the beginning (Gn 1,27) and, through this likeness, he has shown his lovingkindness for you. If you obey his holy commandments, if you imitate He who is good in being good, you will become like him.

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