Daily Gospel for Friday, 9 January 2015

Daily Gospel for Friday, 9 January 2015
"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)
Friday after Epiphany
Feast of the Day:
Saint of the Day:
Saints JULIAN and BASILISSA
Martyrs 
(† c. 313)
St. Julian and St. Basilissa, though married, lived, by mutual consent, in perpetual chastity; they sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick. For this purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which they sometimes entertained a thousand poor people. Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from the men; these were taken care of by Julian, who from his charity is named the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and mortification.
Basilissa, after having stood seven persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived her many years and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus, a youth, Antony, a priest, Anastasius, and Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus.
Many churches and hospitals in the East, and especially in the West, bear the name of one or other of these martyrs. Four churches at Rome, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian, were originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian, the Hospitalarian and martyr.
In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian was brought out of the East into France, and given to Queen Brunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Étampes; part of it is at present in the monastery of Morigny, near Étampes, and part in the church of the regular canonesses of St. Basilissa at Paris.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Adrian of Canterbury
Feastday: January 9
Death: January 9
Born in Africa, Adrian became abbot of the monastery at Nerida, near Naples. He declined an appointment as archbishop of Canterbury, but accompanied St. Theodore to England when the latter was appointed Archbishop. Theodore appointed him Abbot of SS. Peter and Paul Monastery (later changed to St. Augustine's) in Canterbury, and during his thirty-nine years' abbacy, the monastery became renowned as a center of learning. He died on January 9 in Canterbury, and his tomb soon became famous for the miracles wrought there.
Friday after Epiphany
First Letter of John 5:5 No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
Who Jesus Is
6 Water and blood came out from the side of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t just water, but water and blood.[a] The Spirit tells about this, because the Spirit is truthful. 7 In fact, there are three who tell about it. 8 They are the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree.
9 We believe what people tell us. But we can trust what God says even more, and God is the one who has spoken about his Son. 10 If we have faith in God’s Son, we have believed what God has said. But if we don’t believe what God has said about his Son, it is the same as calling God a liar. 11 God has also said that he gave us eternal life and that this life comes to us from his Son. 12 And so, if we have God’s Son, we have this life. But if we don’t have the Son, we don’t have this life.
Knowing about Eternal Life
13 All of you have faith in the Son of God, and I have written to let you know that you have eternal life.
[Footnotes:
5.6 Water and blood came out from the side of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t just water, but water and blood: See John 19.34. It is also possible to translate, “Jesus Christ came by the water of baptism and by the blood of his death! He was not only baptized, but he bled and died.” The purpose of the verse is to tell that Jesus was truly human and that he really died.]
Psalms 147:12 Everyone in Jerusalem,
    come and praise
    the Lord your God!
13 He makes your city gates strong
    and blesses your people
    by giving them children.
14 God lets you live in peace,
    and he gives you
    the very best wheat.
15 As soon as God speaks,
    the earth obeys.
19 God gave his laws and teachings
    to the descendants of Jacob,
    the nation of Israel.
20 But he has not given his laws
to any other nation.
    Shout praises to the Lord!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5: Jesus Heals a Man
12 Jesus came to a town where there was a man who had leprosy.[a] When the man saw Jesus, he knelt down to the ground in front of Jesus and begged, “Lord, you have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”
13 Jesus put his hand on him and said, “I want to! Now you are well.” At once the man’s leprosy disappeared. 14 Jesus told him, “Don’t tell anyone about this, but go and show yourself to the priest. Offer a gift to the priest, just as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed.”[b]
15 News about Jesus kept spreading. Large crowds came to listen to him teach and to be healed of their diseases. 16 But Jesus would often go to some place where he could be alone and pray.
[Footnotes:
5.12 leprosy: See the note at 4.27.
5.14 everyone will know that you have been healed: People with leprosy had to be examined by a priest and told that they were well (that is, “clean”) before they could once again live a normal life in the Jewish community. The gift that Moses commanded was the sacrifice of some lambs together with flour mixed with olive oil.]
Friday after Epiphany
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church 
Sermons for Sundays and Feasts of the Saints
"Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, 'I do will it. Be made clean'"
Oh! How I marvel at that hand! That “hand of my Beloved, of gold adorned with chrysolites” (Wsd 5,14). That hand whose touch loosened the tongue of the dumb man, raised the daughter of Jairus (Mk 7,33; 5,41) and cleansed lepers. That hand of which the prophet Isaiah said: “My hand made all these things!” (Is 66,2).
To stretch out one's hand is to present a gift. O Lord, stretch out your hand – that hand which the executioner stretched out on the cross. Touch the leprous man and grant him your favor. Everything your hand touches will be cleansed and healed. “He touched Malchus' ear” Saint Luke says, “and healed him” (22,51). He stretched out his hand to grant the gift of healing to the leper. He said: “I do will it. Be made clean” and the leprosy left him immediately. “Whatever he wills, he does” (Ps 115[113B),3). In him nothing divides the will from the deed.
Now, God works this kind of instantaneous healing daily in the sinner's soul through the ministry of the priest. Priests have a threefold office: to extend the hand, that is to say to pray for the sinner and have mercy on him; to touch him, comfort him, assure him of forgiveness; to will this forgiveness and grant it by absolution. This was the threefold pastoral ministry the Lord entrusted to Peter when he said to him three times: “Feed my lambs” (Jn 21,15f.).
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