Daily Gospel for Sunday, 14 September 2014

Daily Gospel for Sunday, 14 September 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)
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - Feast
Feast of the Church: THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST Feast
Constantine was still wavering between Christianity and idolatry when a luminous cross appeared to him in the heavens, bearing the inscription, "In this sign shalt thou conquer." He became a Christian, and triumphed over his enemies, who were at the same time the enemies of the Faith.
A few years later, his saintly mother having found the cross on which our Saviour suffered, the feast of the " Exaltation" was established in the Church; but it was only at a later period still, namely, after the Emperor Heraclius had achieved three great and wondrous victories over Chosroes, King of Persia, who had possessed himself of the holy and precious relic, that this festival took a more general extension, and was invested with a higher character of solemnity.
The feast of the "Finding" was thereupon instituted, in memory of the discovery made by St. Helena; and that of the "Exaltation" was reserved to celebrate the triumphs of Heraclius. The greatest power of the Catholic world was at that time centred in the Empire of the East, and was verging toward its ruin, when God put forth His hand to save it: the re-establishment of the great cross at Jerusalem was the sure pledge thereof. This great event occurred in 629.
Herein is found the accomplishment of the Saviour's word: 
"If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself."
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saints of the Day:
SAINT MATERNUS
Bishop of Cologne
(† c. 325)
First known bishop of Cologne whose name has come down to us, St. Maternus was involved in the effort against the Donatist heretics and in 313 Emperor Constantine the Great summoned him to a synod in Rome. He took part in the Synod of Arles in 314.
Saint Peter Canisius defended the medieval identification of Saint Maternus with the son of the widow of Naim who was raised from the dead by Jesus. he was said to have been a disciple of Saint Peter.
Maternus died at Trier, Germany, where it is believed he also served as a bishop at one time.
In art, Saint Maternus is a bishop holding a large key. He may also be shown holding three churches combined as one or with a crozier and pilgrim's staff or hermit's crutch
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - Feast
Book of Numbers 21: The Snake of Fiery Copper
4-5 They set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom. The people became irritable and cross as they traveled. They spoke out against God and Moses: “Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water—we can’t stomach this stuff any longer.”
6-7 So God sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them and many in Israel died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke out against God and you. Pray to God; ask him to take these snakes from us.”
Moses prayed for the people.
8 God said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live.”
9 So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole. Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived.
Psalms 78: An Asaph Psalm
1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,
    bend your ears to what I tell you.
I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
    I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
    counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.
We’re not keeping this to ourselves,
    we’re passing it along to the next generation—
God’s fame and fortune,
    the marvelous things he has done.
32-37 And—can you believe it?—they kept right on sinning;
    all those wonders and they still wouldn’t believe!
So their lives dribbled off to nothing—
    nothing to show for their lives but a ghost town.
When he cut them down, they came running for help;
    they turned and pled for mercy.
They gave witness that God was their rock,
    that High God was their redeemer,
But they didn’t mean a word of it;
    they lied through their teeth the whole time.
They could not have cared less about him,
    wanted nothing to do with his Covenant.
38-55 And God? Compassionate!
    Forgave the sin! Didn’t destroy!
Over and over he reined in his anger,
    restrained his considerable wrath.
He knew what they were made of;
    he knew there wasn’t much to them,
How often in the desert they had spurned him,
    tried his patience in those wilderness years.
Time and again they pushed him to the limit,
    provoked Israel’s Holy God.
How quickly they forgot what he’d done,
    forgot their day of rescue from the enemy,
When he did miracles in Egypt,
    wonders on the plain of Zoan.
He turned the River and its streams to blood—
    not a drop of water fit to drink.
He sent flies, which ate them alive,
    and frogs, which bedeviled them.
He turned their harvest over to caterpillars,
    everything they had worked for to the locusts.
He flattened their grapevines with hail;
    a killing frost ruined their orchards.
He pounded their cattle with hail,
    let thunderbolts loose on their herds.
His anger flared,
    a wild firestorm of havoc,
An advance guard of disease-carrying angels
    to clear the ground, preparing the way before him.
He didn’t spare those people,
    he let the plague rage through their lives.
He killed all the Egyptian firstborns,
    lusty infants, offspring of Ham’s virility.
Then he led his people out like sheep,
    took his flock safely through the wilderness.
He took good care of them; they had nothing to fear.
    The Sea took care of their enemies for good.
He brought them into his holy land,
    this mountain he claimed for his own.
He scattered everyone who got in their way;
    he staked out an inheritance for them—
    the tribes of Israel all had their own places.
Letter to the Philippians 2:5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3:13-15 “No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - Feast
Commentary of the day: 
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] (1891-1942), Carmelite, martyr, co-patron of Europe 
Poem « Signum Crucis », 16/11/1937
"That the world might be saved through him"
…Made man for love of men
He made a gift to the souls he has chosen
Of his human life in its fullness.
He who formed each human heart
Desires to make known one day
The secret meaning of each one’s being
By means of a new name that only the one who receives it understands (Rv 2,17).
He has united each chosen soul
In a mysterious and unique way.
Drawing from the fullness of his human life,
He makes a gift to us
Of the cross.
What is the cross ?
It is the sign of greatest shame.
Whoever comes into contact with it
Is rejected from among men.
People who acclaimed him before
Turn away from him with dread and know him no longer.
He has been handed over, defenceless, to his enemies.
Nothing remains for him on earth any more
Except suffering, anguish and death.
What is the cross ?
The sign pointing to heaven.
Far above the dust and mists here below
It reaches up high into pure light.
Therefore abandon what men may take away,
Open your hands, lean against the cross:
Then it will carry you
Into eternal light.
Raise your eyes to the cross :
It stretches out its wooden beams
Like a man opening wide his arms
To receive the whole world.
Come, all you who toil beneath the weight of the burden (Mt 11,28)
And you who have nothing but a cry, on the cross with him.
It is the image of the God who, being crucified, becomes pale.
It rises up from earth to heaven
Like the One who rose heavenward
And desires to bear all of us there together with himself.
Only embrace the cross and you possess him
Who is the Way, the Truth, the Life (Jn 14,6).
If you carry your cross, it will carry you;
It will be your bliss.
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