Daily Gospel for Thursday, 11 September 2014

Daily Gospel for Thursday, 11 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)
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordianry Time
Saints of the Day:
SAINT PAPHNUTIUS
Bishop
(4th centtury)
The holy confessor Paphnutius was an Egyptian, and after having spent several years in the desert, under the direction of the great St. Antony, was made bishop in Upper Thebais. He was one of those confessors who, under the tyrant Maximin Daia, lost their right eye, and were afterward sent to work in the mines. Peace being restored to the Church, Paphnutius returned to his flock. The Arian heresy being broached in Egypt, he was one of the most zealous in defending the Catholic faith, and for his eminent sanctity and the glorious title of confessor (or one who had confessed the Faith before the persecutors and under torments) was highly considered in the great Council of Nice. Constantine the Great, during the celebration of that synod, sometimes conferred privately with him in his palace, and never dismissed him without kissing respectfully the place which had once held the eye he had lost for the Faith.
St. Paphnutius remained always in a close union with St. Athanasius, and accompanied him to the Council of Tyre, in 335, where they found much the greater part of that assembly to be professed Arians. Seeing Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, among them, Paphnutius took him by the hand, led him out, and told him he could not see that any who bore the same marks as he in defence of the Faith should be seduced and imposed upon by persons who were resolved to oppress the most strenuous assertor of its fundamental article. We have no particular account of the death of St. Paphnutius, but his name stands in the Roman Martyrology on the 11th of September.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saints Protus and Hyacinth
Martyrs 
(† c. 260) 
Commemoration
At Rome, on the old Salarian Way in the cemetery of Basilla, the birthday of the holy martyrs Protus and Hyacinth, brothers, and eunuchs in the service of blessed Eugenia. 
They were arrested in the time of Emperor Gallienus on the charge of being Christians, and urged to offer sacrifice to the gods.  Because they refused, they were most severely scourged and finally beheaded.
The Roman Martyrology 
May the precious witness of your blessed Martyrs, 
Protus and Hyacinth, 
comfort us, O Lord,
and may their kind intercession continually protect  us
The Roman  Breviar
Saint Adelphus
Feastday: September 11
Death: 670
Benedictine abbot. He was the grandson of St. Romaricus and served as his successor as abbot of Remiremont. Adelphus died at Luxeuil, France.
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
First Letter to the Corinthians 8: Freedom with Responsibility
1-3 The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.
4-6 Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there’s nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God, that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don’t add up to anything but a tall story. They say—again, quite rightly—that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master—Jesus the Messiah—and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It’s true.
7 In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It’s just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive.
We need to be sensitive to the fact that we’re not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating “idol meat,” and are sure that there’s something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn’t going to change overnight.
11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn’t you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn’t really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn’t worth it at the cost of even one of these “weak ones.” So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there’s any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.
Psalms 139: A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life;
    get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
    even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
    I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
    before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
    then up ahead and you’re there, too—
    your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
    I can’t take it all in!
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.
23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
    find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
    get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
    then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6:27-30 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time 
Commentary of the day: 
John Tauler (c.1300-1361), Dominican 
Sermon 39, for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (trans. Eric Colledge)
"A good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing"
Here our Lord speaks of four different measures which will be given to men: a good measure, a measure heaped up, a measure pressed down, a measure overflowing… Now the first thing to understand about the good measure is that we must turn our will to God and live according to his commandments and the laws of Holy Church, in the practice of the sacraments and holding to the faith, repenting of our sins… fearing God and loving him in our neighbors. This is what it is to be a Christian and to lead a life that is Christian in truth… Yet this is the lowest grade of all…  When a man makes a beginning in the spiritual life, he plans to perform all kinds of good outward exercises: prayers, prostrations, fasting and many such pious practices. But then presently he is given the measure heaped up, that is, exercises of interior devotion, when with all his power he seeks God in his soul, for that is God’s Kingdom (Lk 17,21). My children, there is as much difference between this and the first way of life as there is between running and sitting still… 
Next comes the measure pressed down, which is an outpouring of love which draws to itself everything else: all good works, all your life, all sufferings, everything which you have in your vessel, and everything good done by everyone, good and evil...; all is in charity…  Love absorbs all the good there is in heaven, in all the saints and all the angels and all the sufferings of the martyrs; love draws to itself all the good which all creatures possess in heaven and on earth. So much of this good is lost, or seems to be lost, but love does not let it perish…
Then there comes the overflowing measure, the measure which is so full and abundant and generous that it overflows on every side. Our Lord has touched this measure with his finger and so everything stored up and kept inside it has flowed over... Everything has overflowed and is lost in God and is one with Him. In such souls God finds his own perfect love, and whatever they do is done by Him in them… This is how the overflowing measure of such perfected souls flows all through Holy Church.
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