Daily Gospel for Thursday, 4 September 2014

Daily Gospel for Thursday, 4 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-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the Day:
ST. ROSALIA 
Virgin
(† 1160)
St. Rosalia was daughter of a noble family descended from Charlemagne. She was born at Palermo in Sicily, and despising in her youth worldly vanities, made herself an abode in a cave on Mount Pelegrino, three miles from Palermo, where she completed the sacrifice of her heart to God by austere penance and manual labor, sanctified by assiduous prayer and the constant union of her soul with God.
She died in 1160. Her body was found buried in a grot under the mountain, in the year of the jubilee, 1625, under Pope Urban VIII., and was translated into the metropolitan church of Palermo, of which she was chosen a patroness. To her patronage that island ascribes the ceasing of a grievous pestilence at the same time.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
First Letter to the Corinthians 3:18-20 Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,
He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
    of the know-it-alls.
21-23 I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.
Psalm 24: A David Psalm
1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.
3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.
5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5: Push Out into Deep Water
1-3 Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon’s and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd.
4 When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”
5-7 Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.
8-10 Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon.
10-11 Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.
Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop 
Sermon 39, attrib.
"From now on you will be catching men"
When the Lord, seated in the boat, said to Peter : “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for the catch” he was advising him, less to throw out his fishing implements into deep water, than to cast his words of preaching into the depths of people’s hearts. Saint Paul penetrated this heart’s abyss when he cast out the words: “How great are the depths and the richness of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”… Just as the net brings back to the boat the fish it has caught in its folds, so faith leads to rest in its bosom all the people it has gathered together.
So as to make us understand that the Lord was talking about a spiritual fishing, Peter said: « Master, we have worked hard all night long without a catch, but at your word I will let down my nets »… This Word is the Lord our Savior… Since Peter let down his net according to the Word, he spreads his eloquence everywhere according to Christ. He handles nets woven according to his master’s instructions; he casts out in the name of the Lord words even more clear and efficacious than before to enable him to save, not irrational creatures but men.
“We have toiled all night and caught nothing. » Yes, Peter had indeed toiled all night…; when the Savior’s light shone out the darkness was dispersed and his faith allowed him to distinguish, in the depths of the water, what his eyes could not see. Peter had, as it were, suffered from night until the day that is Christ came to his rescue. This is what was said to the apostle Paul: “The night is far gone; the day is at hand” (Rm 13,12).
____________________________