Daily Gospel for Thursday, 24 July 2014

Daily Gospel for Thursday, 24 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)
Thursday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the Day:
SAINT SHARBEL MAKHLUF
Priest
(1828-1898)

Joseph Zaroun  Makhluf was born in a small mountain village of Lebanon. Raised by an uncle who opposed the boy's youthful piety, he snuck away at age 23 to join the Baladite monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya where he took the name Charbel in memory of a 2nd century martyr. He was ordained in 1858.   
Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Sharbel lived as a model monk on the bare minimums of everything. He gained a reputation for holiness, and was much sought for counsel and blessing. He had a great personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and was known to levitate during his prayers. He was briefly paralyzed just before his death.
Several post-mortem miracles were attributed to him, including periods in 1927 and 1950 when a bloody "sweat" flowed from his corpse. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage for Lebanese and non-Lebanese, Christian and non-Christian alike.
Sharbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice, and prayer by the way he lived. He was beatified in 1965 and canonized in 9 October 1977 by Pope Paul VI.
July 24th is the feast-day for St. Sharbel Makhlouf on the Universal Church. The Maronite Church celebrates him on the 3rd Sunday of July and on December 24th, the day he went to heaven.
SAINT CHRISTINA
Virgin and Martyr
(† c. 300)

St. Christina was the daughter of a rich and powerful magistrate named Urbain. Her father, who was deep in the practices of heathenism, had a number of golden idols, which our Saint destroyed, and distributed the pieces among the poor. Infuriated by this act, Urbain became the persecutor of his daughter; he had her whipped with rods and then thrown into a dungeon. Christina remained unshaken in her faith.
Her tormentor then had her body torn by iron hooks, and fastened her to a rack beneath which a fire was kindled. But God watched over his servant and turned the flames upon the lookers-on. Christina was next seized, a heavy stone tied about her neck, and she was thrown into the lake of Bolsena, but she was saved by an angel, and outlived her father, who died of spite.
Later, this martyr suffered the most inhuman torments under the judge who succeeded her father, and finally was thrown into a burning furnace, where she remained, unhurt, for five days. By the power of Christ she overcame the serpents among which she was thrown; then her tongue was cut out, and afterwards, being pierced with arrows, she gained the martyr's crown at Tyro, a city which formerly stood on an island in the lake of Bolsena in Italy, but was long since swallowed up by the waters.
Her relics are now at Palermo in Sicily.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Blessed Louise of Savoy
July 24
(1461-1503)

On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a daughter was born to the Duke of Savoy and the sister of King Louis XI of France. The child, named Louise, was to distinguish herself by her innocence and holiness rather than by any worldly status.
As a youngster she was deeply devoted to prayer and solitude. While still a young girl she fasted on bread and water on the vigils of the Blessed Mother's feast days. Although she wore the costly garments and jewelry that went with one of her rank, she quietly insisted on wearing a haircloth underneath as a reminder that it was her soul that she truly needed to tend to.
Her uncle arranged for her to marry the Prince of Chalon, a virtuous young man who appreciated his young wife's devotion to simplicity. Excessiveness and opulence were absent from their court. The couple persuaded both the ladies and men of the court to follow a more Christian life.
At age 27 Louise lost her husband and thereafter retired to a more simple life that allowed her to devote herself to works of charity and penance. Childless, she chose to enter a convent of Poor Clares at Orbe. Though she proved to be a model of humility and obedience, Louise was felled by a serious illness at age 42. God took her home on July 24.
Pope Gregory XVI beatified her in 1839.
Comment:
Louise is one of those saints whose piety was apparent even when she was just a little girl. Most of us don’t come to holiness so early or so easily.

It is worth noting that Louise’s precocious holiness gave her no better a guarantee of a long and happy life than we enjoy. Still, like all the saints, Louise models what God wants of all of us: simplicity, generosity and faith that perseveres even through adversity.

Saints John Boste, George Swallowell, & John Ingram
John Boste was born in Dufton, Westmoreland, England around the year 1544. From 1569-1572 he studied at Queen's College, Oxford and was made a Fellow of the college. However, in 1576 he converted to Catholicism, forcing him to resign his fellowship. He left to study in Rheims for the priesthood and was ordained on March 4, 1581. Later in the year, he returned to England to minister to the persecuted Church. A nationwide manhunt was ordered for this priest. He made use of disguises, particularly that of a servant of one Lord Montacute, in order to evade capture. However, on July 5, 1593, he was betrayed by Francis Ecclesfield and was captured while at the home of a man named William Claxton.
George Swallowell was born in Shadforth, Durham, England. He was raised protestant and even became a minister. However, while working as a schoolteacher, he converted to the Catholic faith and was eventually arrested for this "crime."
John Ingram was born in 1565 at Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, England, the son of Anthony Ingram of Wolford, Warwickshire and Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Hungerford. He studied at Worcesteshire and New College, Oxford. It was during his time as a student that he converted to Catholicism. Like St. John Boste, John Ingram went to Rheims to study for the priesthood under Cardinal William Allen. He continued his studies at the Jesuit College, Pont-a-Mousson, France and later at the English College in Rome where he was eventually ordained in 1589. Following his ordination he was sent to minister in Dunbar, Scotland. Due to the Catholic persecutions in Scotland which posed an imminent threat to his life, Bl. John fled across the border to England where he laid low for five hours before attempting to return to his mission. It was at this time, while he was crossing the Tweed, that he arrested.
All three men were eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London where they were tortured in an attempt to make them recant their faith, and, due to fear, George Swallowell did. John Boste later convinced him to repent and granted him absolution in the presence of the whole court.
John Boste and John Ingram were convicted of the high crime of priesthood and all three men were sentenced to death by being hanged, drawn and quartered. St. John Boste was executed on July 24, 1594 at Dryburn, near Durham, England. Blesseds George Swallowell and John Ingram were executed on July 26, 1594, George at Darlington, England and John at Newcastle-on-Tyne near Durham, England. John Ingram's last words were "I take God and His holy angels to the record that I die only for the holy Catholic faith and religion, and do rejoice and thank God with all my heart that He made me worthy to testify my faith therein by the spending of my blood in this manner."

John Boste was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. The canonizations of George Swallowell and John Ingram are still pending.
Thursday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Jeremiah 2: Israel Was God’s Holy Choice
1-3 God’s Message came to me. It went like this:
“Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem,
    ‘God’s Message!
I remember your youthful loyalty,
    our love as newlyweds.
You stayed with me through the wilderness years,
    stuck with me through all the hard places.
Israel was God’s holy choice,
    the pick of the crop.
Anyone who laid a hand on her
    would soon wish he hadn’t!’”
        God’s Decree.
7-8 “I brought you to a garden land
    where you could eat lush fruit.
But you barged in and polluted my land,
    trashed and defiled my dear land.
The priests never thought to ask, ‘Where’s God?’
    The religion experts knew nothing of me.
The rulers defied me.
12-13 “Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see!
    Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!”
        God’s Decree.
“My people have committed a compound sin:
    they’ve walked out on me, the fountain
Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—
    cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.
Psalms 36:5-6 God’s love is meteoric,
    his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
    his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
    nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
    slips through the cracks.
7-9 How exquisite your love, O God!
    How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
    as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
    and you open our eyes to light.
10-12 Keep on loving your friends;
    do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
    the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
    flat on their faces in the mud.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 13: Why Tell Stories?
10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
    Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.
16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church 
Sermons on the Song of Songs, no.2.III.4f (trans. ©Classics of Western Spirituality)
"Many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it"
The holy men who lived before the coming of the Savior understood that God had in mind “a plan to bring peace to the race of mortal men” (Jer 29,11). For the Word “would do nothing on earth which he did not reveal to his servants the prophets” (Am 3,7). But this Word was hidden from many…; but those who foreknew the redemption of Israel also proclaimed that Christ would come in the flesh and that with him would come peace… "There will be peace when he comes to our earth" (cf. Mi 5,5). 
In those days, while the prophets foretold peace the faith of the people continually wavered because there was no one to redeem or save them, for the Author of peace delayed his coming. So men complained at the delay, because the Prince of Peace (Is 9,5), who had been so often proclaimed, had not yet come, as had been promised by the holy men who were his prophets from of old (Lk 1,70)… It was as if one of the people were to answer the messengers of peace: "How much longer are you going to keep us waiting?" (Jn 10,24). You foretell a peace which does not come. You promise good things and there is still confusion (Jer 14,19). See, many times and in many ways) angels announced to the patriarchs and our fathers proclaimed to us, saying: "Peace. And there is no peace" (Jer 6,14)... Let God confirm that his messengers spoke the truth, if they were his messengers, and let him follow them in person…
Here are sweet promises full of consolation : « Behold the Lord will appear; and he will not lie. If he seems slow, wait for him, for he will come and that soon” (Hab 2,3). And again: “The time of his coming is near and his days will not be prolonged” (Is 14,1), and, from the person of him who was promised: “Behold,” he says, “I am running toward you like a river of peace and like a stream in flood with the glory of the nations” (Is 66,12 Vg).
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